THREAD on the usage of ‘illegal’ to describe people -- like "illegal migrants" -- in our reports, etc
While writing ‘No Land’s People’, I came across some fascinating conversations around the world on the usage of ‘illegal’ to describe people. (This didn’t go into the book.)
While writing ‘No Land’s People’, I came across some fascinating conversations around the world on the usage of ‘illegal’ to describe people. (This didn’t go into the book.)
In 2016, journalist Maria Hinojosa told a Donald Trump advisor on MSNBC he shouldn’t use “illegals” to describe immigrants - “What you can do is that you can say it is an immigrant living illegally or an immigrant living without papers or without documents in this country."
She added: “But what you cannot do is to label the person illegal.” huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/latina-j…
Hinojosa said that she learnt this from Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust surviving author, Nobel Laureate (1986). She quoted him saying, “you know what? The first thing they did was that they declared the Jews to be an illegal people.” And that’s what we’re talking about at this point.”
In 2012, Hinojosa recalled Wiesel telling her: “You do not label a people 'illegal.' They have committed an illegal act. They are immigrants who crossed illegally. They are immigrants who crossed without papers. They are immigrants who crossed without permission.(cont)..."
"...They are living in this country without permission. But they are not an illegal people." rawstory.com/2012/10/npr-an…
Wiesel had survived the German concentration and extermination camps. The phrase “no human being is illegal” is attributed to him. More about him here: nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1…
and
theguardian.com/us-news/2015/d…
and
theguardian.com/us-news/2015/d…
In 2013, AP said - “The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term 'illegal immigrant' or the use of 'illegal' to describe a person. Instead, it tells users that 'illegal' should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally.”
In 2013, NYT public editor, Margaret Sullivan, wrote: “So many people find it offensive to refer to a person with an adjective like ‘illegal’ that I now favor the use of ‘undocumented’ or ‘unauthorized’ as alternatives.” publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/the…
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