Illegal-Alien Reporter Launches Crusade to Ban 'Illegal' from Immigration News Stories

Ted Hesson at ABCNews.com reports that formerly "objective" Washington Post reporter Jose Antonio Vargas is leading a crusade to ban the term "illegal immigrant" from polite news coverage. Or as Hesson puts it, Vargas will "begin monitoring the use" of the phrase "with the goal of shifting the conversation."

"The term dehumanizes and marginalizes the people it seeks to describe," Vargas said. "Think of it this way, in what other context do we call someone illegal?" Since announcing to the world that he's an illegal immigrant, Vargas has become a celebrity activist who's starred in cover stories in in The New York Times Magazine and Time. He wants reporters to use the word "undocumented," and many do.

What's clear is that Vargas wants to remove any negativity from the descriptions. If a reporter decided to call him an "improper immigrant," it would still be worse than "undocumented." He said a child driver would not be called an "illegal driver." He doesn't note that America doesn't have 12 million children driving cars.