What are you supposed to call them?

What’s the correct term?

I always call them illegal aliens, which is the name found in most of the statutes.

Harry Reid came up with a new one this week: “Undocumented Americans”. I suppose that was wishful thinking on his part. Sort of like Bush telling reporters, “See you at the signing.”

Ted Kennedy was calling them “stakeholders” back in April.

I suppose the PC term, and the one used by most media outlets is “undocumented worker”.

You could call most of them “EWIs” for Entered Without Inspection, Immigration’s term for those who don’t stop at a border station.

We once called them “WOPs”, meaning Without Papers. It’s from the days when they called refugees “DPs”, for Displaced Persons.

Then there is the term “wetback”, meaning they swam the Rio Grande to get here.

I’ve generally found that the sensitive types call them Undocumented something-or-others. Me, I’ll stick with illegal aliens whether I offend them or not.

For the style conscious writer, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists has written their take on the proper term. It’s worth a look:

http://www.nahj.org/nahjnews/articles/2006/March/immigrationcoverage.shtml

Who says I don’t write balanced stuff?