At The Daily Illini, we want to be as professional as possible. A major aspect of this professionalism is adherence to the Associated Press Stylebook. AP style is used by many professional publications across the country.

The Associated Press announced its decision on Tuesday to exclude the term “illegal immigrant” from the 2013 stylebook. Previously, the only variation from this racially charged term was to refer to an individual as “living in the country without legal permission.”

As a former assistant news editor, I always cringed at having to add the term “illegal immigrant” into a story. Undocumented immigrant, a term I prefer, is not AP style, so I had to use illegal immigrant in stories despite my opposition. 

More than three years ago, the Drop The I-Word campaign, sponsored by ColorLines Magazine and the Applied Research Center, was created to influence journalists, politicians and the public to rethink using the word illegal to describe undocumented immigrants.

My major problem with calling immigrants illegal is that it dehumanizes them. As the Drop The I-Word campaign states, no human being is illegal. The use of “illegal” as an adjective before a category of people is what makes the term “illegal alien” so derogatory. We would never refer to Gov. Rod Blagojevich as an illegal governor — it just sounds silly. Instead, we specify that his actions were illegal. Likewise, the same consideration should be given to undocumented immigrants. People may act illegally, but that doesn’t make them illegal people.

Given the illogical nature of this term, how is it possible that it has become a part of our discourse? One of the main reasons we don’t object to the term is because politicians use it. In a town hall meeting in March, a woman asked Rep. John McCain to stop calling humans illegal. He refused, stating that undocumented immigrants entered the country illegally, so they should be identified in such a way.  

But as I mentioned earlier, this immediate criminalization is reserved only for undocumented immigrants. It’s no surprise that a politician wants to be able to use this term. Using the term “illegal immigrants” allows politicians to incorporate scare tactics within their policies on immigration. 

By criminalizing people before knowing anything about them, the judicial system gets away with doling out excessively strong punishments. Take Claudio Molina, father of three and undocumented immigrant, who may be deported. Molina was vomiting and convulsing as side effects of his medication, and a bystander called 911 for an ambulance to help Molina. Instead of paramedics, police officers showed up. Instead of giving him medical assistance, they arrested him. The public has accepted the blatant disregard for Molina’s well-being; because he is undocumented, he can be denied basic human rights. The police officers were doing their jobs by checking Molina’s immigration status, but how could they blatantly ignore his deteriorating condition?

I like to think the American population is better than that. We stand up for the rights of people, regardless of what they have done. We believe people are innocent until proven guilty. So why is it that a human being needing medical assistance was arrested?

A lot of it has to do with harmful terms like “illegal.” Molina is seen, first and foremost, as a criminal. It doesn’t matter that he is diabetic, that he is the breadwinner for his family or that his youngest child is only 4 years old. Molina is only defined by his immigration status. He has done something wrong. He doesn’t deserve what people in the rest of the country deserve. 

As the Drop The I-Word campaign notes, normalization of calling people illegal allows for human rights violations to go unpunished. People who hire undocumented immigrants for inexpensive, exploitative labor — knowing that these people are undocumented — are also acting illegally. But it’s only the laborers who are labeled as illegal; their employers who are complicit in breaking laws are not given dehumanizing titles.

I realize that many people reading this column feel they have the right to continue to call people illegal because of how undocumented immigrants entered the country. I can’t stop anyone from using the term. If you want to perpetuate a culture of narrow-mindedness and dehumanization, I have no right to stop you. 

Despite people’s reluctance to abandon the term “illegal immigrant,” the Associated Press changing its stylebook is a major victory for immigrants, documented and undocumented. As an editor, I was hyper-aware of accusing people of crimes. I, along with the other former news editors, drilled it into reporters’ heads that people are arrested on charges of wrongdoing, not arrested for wrongdoing. 

We never assume a citizen’s guilt. It’s bad journalism. The Associated Press’ decision to abandon the term “illegal immigrant” adheres to standards of good journalism. It’s also the right decision morally; no human being is illegal, and it’s time we start treating undocumented immigrants as people.

Safia is a senior in LAS. She can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter

@Safia_Kazi.