AP Drops 'Illegal Immigrant' From Stylebook: How Will This Affect Immigration News?

The Associated Press announced on Tuesday that they will no longer use the term "illegal immigrant."

"The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term 'illegal immigrant' or the use of 'illegal' to describe a person," wrote AP Senior Vice President Kathleen Carroll on the news blog. "Instead, it tells users that 'illegal' should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally."

The decision comes after years of controversy. The term "illegal" was dropped by several news outlets, including CNN and ABC, who have adopted the term "undocumented" instead to refer to immigrants who do not possess the required paperwork to be considered legal residents.

AP aims to describe behavior, instead of people, as illegal. Therefore, it will advise journalists to describe people as "living in the country illegally" or "immigrating to a country illegally." Children who were brought over illegally by their parents should be described as having "temporary resident status" under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which was implemented last year. The Stylebook also tells journalists to specify how someone entered a country illegally and from where.

AP has not specified what term they will use instead of "illegal," arguing that "undocumented" is inaccurate, since an individual can have documents but not the required ones for legal residence.

The media world has reacted to the news in different stages. Conservative blog Twitchy has called the move "pathetic." Pulitzer-winner journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, who in 2011 opened up about his status as an undocumented resident, showed his elation on Twitter: "No human being is 'illegal.'"

Now, the debate on nuance and options in journalism turns to the last big outlets who are still using the controversial term -- the New York Times among them.