Illegals

This week's Newsweek cover story has the headline Illegals Under Fire. I was surprised to see the term "illegal" used on the cover and throughout the article--although I had never seen the word used that way before, it sounded derogatory to me. Wikipedia defines "illegal" as "(slang) a person within a country who is present in violation of the immigration laws" and goes on to note that the term is "derived from illegal alien, and is generally considered pejorative.....The term can be used to describe any undocumented immigrant, but is generally used interchangeably with mojado or wetback to describe Latino, primarily Mexican immigrant."

I'm curious as to why Newsweek chose to use this term in an article that strives to be even-handed. Disability advocates have campaigned for what they call "person-first language"; that is, instead of saying "the mentally ill," you say "people who have mental illness," thus emphasizing people's common humanity rather than labeling them only by their disability. Although sometimes political correctness can be taken too far, I'm a big believer in using language carefully; our words can shape our thoughts and our debates. Whatever your views on immigration, using the word "illegal" as a noun dehumanizes the people who are in the U.S. illegally, and that doesn't help us see the issue clearly.