Associated Press Issues Misleading Defense of Term “Illegal
Immigrant”  Unlike lawyers and policymakers, journalists have an
obligation to use language that ordinary people understand.
Although the practice is generally helpful, it can sometimes
result in oversimplification, or sacrificing accuracy for the
sake of supposed clarity. A perfect example is the memo issued
by the Associated Press last week endorsing use of the term
“illegal immigrant.”  At first glance, the memo—authored by Tom
Kent, a high-ranking AP editor—appears driven by a dispassionate
analysis of immigration law. To Kent, terms like “unauthorized”
and “undocumented” obscure what he calls a “legal reality,”
i.e., that certain immigrants are present in the United States
in violation of law. Without “the fundamental right to be in the
United States,” the memo says, “their presence is illegal.”  In
truth, immigration law is much more complicated than Kent
suggests. Just as suspected criminals are presumed innocent
until proven guilty (and thus