News Round Up In-Brief

U.S. News

• Immigration advocates successfully pressured the AP into outlawing the word “illegal” when used to describe persons, prompting the New York Times to more seriously reconsider the term.

• The growing political clout of the United Farmworkers Union was in evidence April 11 when the Union struck a deal with crop growers on visas and pay scales for foreign farmworkers.

What’s in a name? AP shifts the discourse by eschewing the term “illegal immigrant”

• Yesterday the Associated Press made the bold and surprising announcement that the AP stylebook will no longer sanction the term “illegal immigrant.” According to the AP’s new standards, “‘illegal’ should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally, and not a person.”

• This announcement garnered swift responses — for instance, from David Weigel at Slate.com, who reflected on the role of activists in shifting discourse (including, above all, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas), and from New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan — who had asserted as late as October that the term is “clear and accurate.” Sullivan stuck to her guns even after interviewing veteran NYT journalist Julia Preston, who expressed dissatisfaction with Sullivan’s position.

News Round Up In-Brief

U.S. News

• According to a Pew Research Center Survey, the majority of people in the United States believe that there should be a way for undocumented immigrants to remain the United States. The findings also point to divided opinions about whether to grant undocumented immigrants citizenship or legal permanent residency.
• Responding to a recent story about immigrants being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano asked federal immigration officials to provide her more information about immigrants being held in solitary confinement at federal facilities.