San Diego County has a population of nearly 3 million people. Triple that figure for the high end of an estimate of the number who are in this country illegally. Think about it. Nearly three times the population of San Diego County; more than 3 percent of the U.S. population.
Because of this region’s proximity to the border with Mexico, many of those who come to the United States illegally from Latin America pass through San Diego. Sometimes, as we have seen, their journeys end in death.
What happened last Monday night on a stretch of Interstate 8 between Pine Valley and Buckman Springs is unthinkable. A Dodge van carrying an estimated 33 suspected illegal immigrants was going the wrong way with its lights off. The driver sideswiped two vehicles and then crashed head-on into a Ford Explorer and a Toyota van, killing himself, four of his passengers and a New Mexico man who had nothing to do with the immigrants.
Readers fired off angry letters to the newspaper. It’s not new that some blame the immigration problem on economic conditions in Latin America that drive people to risk their lives to come to this country illegally. Others are angry at the U.S. government for its handling of the border problem.
Some are furious with employers whose jobs are a magnet and who have to pay nothing of the expenses involved in getting a cheap labor pool into this country. Others are angry because the cost for treating the injuries of the suspected illegal immigrants is being picked up by San Diego County residents.
Of course, the rage of many is directed at smugglers who trade in human traffic, who are so greedy and whose lust for money is so great that they risk their own lives, the lives of the people they are “helping” and the lives of people who happen to be on the road when they try to duck Border Patrol checkpoints.
There are at least three other targets of some readers’ anger. Some blame the immigrants for their own deaths and injuries, saying the accident wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t tried to come into this country illegally. Others are upset with Latino groups that protest immigration policies on behalf of their brethren.
All of these are weighty issues. However, what I find curious — although not surprising — is readers who complained because the Union-Tribune called passengers in the smuggler’s van “undocumented immigrants” rather than “illegal aliens.”
Those who cross the border without documents are in this country illegally and that makes them criminals, some readers contend. They shouldn’t be called immigrants, much less “undocumented immigrants.” They are “illegal aliens,” some insist. The San Diego Union-Tribune’s terminology to describe the people in the smuggler’s van is euphemistic, a matter of political correctness, others claim.
Tuesday, a reader said if he saw the term “undocumented immigrants” rather than “illegal aliens” one more time, he would cancel delivery of the Union-Tribune. The next day, the phrase appeared on the front page. I don’t know whether the reader canceled.
But, those who insist the correct term is “illegal alien” probably would have been unhappy with accounts in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times that also did not use the term “illegal alien.” An item on Wednesday’s front page of The New York Times referring readers to a story inside the newspaper used the term “suspected illegal immigrants.” The front page of the Los Angeles Times also said “illegal immigrants.”
At the Union-Tribune, the newspaper’s stylebook says “alien should not be used to mean migrants, immigrants or others who are not U.S. citizens, except in direct quotes or in legal language, or where it is clearly not pejorative. For example, a travel story about passports might include a reference to resident aliens.”
Union-Tribune style permits the use of the terms “undocumented” or “illegal immigrants.” Both have been used in connection with this story.
The best advice on usage: “When possible, it is best to use a specific reference, such as Briton, Honduran, Canadian, Mexican, etc., even `Central Americans living in the United States illegally.’ ” But that’s not always possible. The country of origin is not always immediately known; sometimes, the immigrants are from more than one country, as was the case last Monday.
Why is “illegal alien” considered so pejorative as far as many newspapers are concerned? The term suggests a being who is less than human. As William Safire wrote in his “On Language” column in The New York Times in 1991, in general speech the word alien is now applied “mainly to visitors from other planets.”
