The Associated Press shirked their own style guide in a recently published article, using “undocumented citizens” in lieu of their usual “undocumented immigrants.”
From the Associated Press: “undocumented citizens” pic.twitter.com/UsMYHz4Mga
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) September 7, 2017
The article with the strange reference was published on September 5 and discusses Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s response to President Donald Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“The Chicago Sun-Times reports that school officials say about a third of the school’s students are undocumented citizens,” the AP wrote.
In the same piece, AP also failed to explain that DACA only protects immigrants in the country illegally, not all “young immigrants” as is written in the article’s lede.
It is unclear why the undocumented or illegal students would be referred to as “citizens.” The Chicago Sun-Times article that the AP links to never refers to illegal or undocumented immigrants as “undocumented citizens,” making the addition even more puzzling.
In 2013, the Associated Press dropped “illegal immigrant” from their stylebook and said they would not describe people as illegal, but would instead focus on people’s actions being illegal.