The Associated Press makes a social move for comprehensive Immigration Reform

This week, the Associated Press released that they will no longer use the term "Illegal" to describe a person, but rather an action. This is important because most journalist use the "AP's style, when producing articles. The Associated Press wanted to clarify how the term will be used, therefore they released this statement: "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".

What does this mean?
This provides some insight to how journalism will begin to change the social construction of legal and illegal immigration. This, I would argue, is related to the movement in Washington by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This has been argued for by many civil rights organizations who focus on immigration, but also by immigrant supporters. This change will allow the social perspective on the individuals and families who are here, often documented but no longer authorized to stay because their VISA expired. This change in style is met with opposition, some what to call them Infiltrators and others believe that "illegal" is the best description for these folks. Ultimately, I believe this is a step forward for the culture around immigration, so we can begin to humanize these families and individuals again.

Making the distinction between an illegal act and person is critical for us to move forward on how to view immigration in the United States. With a global world, we will forever encounter immigration, therefore we need to set up a system that can accommodate the movement of people across borders, especially with our neighbors. Our economies (USA, Canada, Mexico) are so intertwined that we need to embrace our cultural differences to create a better and more diverse economy. This distinction to not call someone Illegal, will allow some of the more Egalitarians to accept these immigrants. Until now, many arguments against a pathway to citizenship was blocked by this social construction and application of "Illegal" in the media. Now that we are aiming to remove this term, we can only hope that we will progress further with true immigration reform.