AP Stops Using Term "Illegal Immigrant"

Interestingly, the Associated Press (AP) News Agency has made the decision to stop using the term "Illegal Immigrant" in its publications:

"The Associated Press says their update is more about avoiding labels as a general practice than showing sensitivity to the immigrant community (though the editors did have meetings with such advocates in recent months). “We try to be fair to people’s feelings,” standards editor Tom Kent tells TIME, “but we’re not responding to one political current or another.” He says the change to the AP Stylebook, an established guide to proper usage and grammar, is no different than changes that have nixed other reductive terms, like wheelchair-bound or schizophrenic. “We’re trying to put the emphasis not on describing people but on describing actions or situations that they are in,” Kent says. (TIME discourages the use of the term “illegal immigrant” by our writers.)" (Time Magazine)