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No Human is Illegal
Posted on May 23 2019
(For a printable PDF version of this Fact Sheet, click here.)
No Human is Illegal
- Most people without documents in the United States entered the country legally. Some have overstayed their visas. Some are waiting for visas or extensions to be processed. That does not mean that they are “illegal.”
- If you have ever run through a stop sign or driven above the speed limit, you have committed an illegal act. This does not mean that you are an “illegal driver.”
- Using the word “illegal” to describe undocumented immigrants is dehumanizing, inflammatory, and inaccurate.
Living in the United States without documentation is a civil offense, not a criminal one.
- Living in the U.S. without legal authorization (unlawful presence) is a civil offense, while improper entry (crossing the border without inspection), is a misdemeanor.
- Most immigrants who do not have proper documentation arrived in the United States legally, and therefore have not committed a crime.
AP Stylebook: Describe actions, not people.
- In April,2013, The Associated Press changed its stylebook to take away the use of “illegal” when writing about individuals:
“illegal immigration Entering or residing in a country in violation of civil or criminal law. Except in direct quotes essential to the story, use illegal only to refer to an action, not a person: illegal immigration, but not illegal immigrant. Acceptable variations include living in or entering a country illegally or without legal permission.”
- Labels “[end] up pigeonholing people or creating long descriptive titles where you use some main event in someone’s life to become the modifier before their name,” said AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor, Kathleen Carroll.
- Phrases such as “illegal immigrant” and “illegal alien” replace ever-changing legal circumstances and unique situations and stories with an unspecified assumption of guilt.
- These dehumanizing terms and phrases oversimplify the complex situations of individual people.
- Do not repeat inflammatory language used by the government or news sources. The more a word or phrase is repeated, the more power it holds and the more popular it becomes.