Who changed the words "Illegal Alien" to "Undocumented Worker"? and why?

Question

It always amazes me how this seems to happen-- why

Answer 1

La Raza in conjunction with extreme leftists who worship political correctness. Their doctrine is to never just state facts because someone might feel bad.

If you remember the self-esteem movement in the public schools years ago they stopped playing team sports because someone would have to lose and feel bad.

Now we have a whole population of people who don't have the guts to call it like it is.

Illegals are not immigrants any more than bank robbers are customers.

Answer 2

NY Times, Washington Post, the McClatchy Newspaper chain... on and on.  And they did it because they felt more of their readers were Hispanic and illegal aliens than were Citizens and middle class.  La Raza has done a whole lot of work trying to change the term and still don't understand that immigrant implies legality of movement to another area.  Don't forget the Mexican Government is spending a lot of money for lobby groups and propaganda.

Answer 3

The same people who are trying to get amnesty for illegal aliens.  The reason is because "undocumented worker" sounds less... well... illegal, and of course, the fact that they ARE here illegally is what the supporters want everyone else to forget.

Answer 4

political correctness we sure don't wanna hurt anybody's feelings

Answer 5

Illegal Alien is the term which I was taught at the Border Patrol Academy.  It is somewhat descriptive because people cannot be "illegal"  they can only enter illegally.  EWI or Entry Without Inspection is a term we also used.  Overstay is another more exact term.  A person can also be Out of Status, meaning that his visa is lawful but does not authorize employment, as well as other things.

Undocumented Worker is a descriptive term but it is not one which the government uses.  Most persons who work without authorization are not undocumented.  Many have false or fraudulent documents.  Unlawfully Employed Worker would be a better term. An Unlawfully Employed or Undocumented worker could also be an EWI, an Overstay, or Out of Status.  Then you have Parientes (relatives of lawful aliens visiting unlawfully), Coyotes (alien smugglers) Contrabandistas (drug smugglers), Refugees and more.  It can get rather complex, so we lump them colloquially into the  "Illegal Alien" bag.

But as Shakespeare said "what's in a name?"   And what is your point?

Answer 6

Technically, "Undocumented Worker" is the correct term.  "Illegal" means committed a crime.  While entering the country without authorization is a crime, it is almost never prosecuted as such, since prosecutors prefer to bring civil charges rather than criminal charges.

Answer 7

The politically correct speech n***s. They also changed police interrorgations to interviews.

Answer 8

Technically, "Undocumented Worker" is NOT the correct term. "Illegal Alien" is correct. Always has been. Always will be.

Let's take a closer look here. "Undocumented"... hmmm... just a fancy word for no paperwork. Could mean anything. "worker". Well, some of them work. A lot more just try to draw public assistance or commit violent crimes.

Now, let's look at "illegal alien". "illegal". Yep, if you're here and you weren't born here, and you didn't go through customs and immigration, then your presence is probably illegal. If I park in a No Parking zone, that's ILLEGAL. Whether I ultimately have to answer for it is usually a matter of random chance. Whether or not I'm held to answer for the crime doesn't make it any more or less ILLEGAL.

"alien". Yep again. Just means that you're a citizen of another country.

Answer 9

The bleeding heart liberals who are destroying this country. For the record,the proper term is illegal alien or you could just say criminal it's just as accurate and appropriate.