From Illegal Alien to Undocumented Immigrant. Orwell Would Have Been Proud
On 11/8/17 at 12:54 PM
Vocabulary changes always reflect the agendas of a political debate.
The fight over illegal immigration plays out by altering words and their meanings.
Take the traditional rubric “illegal alien.” The English has been clear and exact for nearly a century: illegal alien (cf. Latin alienus ) was a descriptive term for any foreigner who crossed the US border without coming through customs to obtain proper legal sanction.
Illegal alien, then, was a politically neutral, exact, and descriptive term: one used by both the Supreme Court and Internal Revenue Service.
http://www.newsweek.com/illegal-alien-undocumented-immigrant-orwell-would-have-been-proud-705664
