Illegal aliens, illegal immigrants, undocumented workers and aliens
Ted Vaden, public editor at the N&O, writes about what to call people from a foreign land who are in this country illegally.
Illegal immigrant? Illegal alien? Undocumented worker? Unauthorized immigrant?
Those are some of the different labels and euphemisms that media organizations have come up with to describe the 12 million or so foreign nationals who are living in this country without immigration authorization. All the labels are unsatisfactory in some respect, and they cause fits for news organizations trying to report on one of the biggest issues of our time -- what to do with the people who don't have authority to live here.
I don't know that they cause us fits, but they sure make some readers apoplexic. Wander through the comments on this Debatable and you'll see a sampling.
* THEY ARE ILLEGAL PEOPLE!
* Illegal people? There's no such thing. I wish we could have a conversation about undocumented persons without the mean spirited comments we have on this forum.
* Your euphemism of choice, "undocumented workers," seems an attempt to imply that all illegal immigrants are, in fact, "workers."
Words have meaning, and people should use the right word to mean what they want to say. Names also carry emotional baggage and some people seem to want to load this one up.
Our style book says: Do not use the term illegal aliens when referring to people who have entered the country illegally. Use "illegal immigrants" instead. Do not use the shortened term illegals except when necessary in headlines. That is apparently the News & Observer's policy, too.
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