Usage on the Left
When did the phrase illegal immigrant or indeed just immigrant become migrant in modern press usage? Check out this article from the AP (emphasis added in both passages):

As temperatures rise, the U.S. Border Patrol and aid groups are gearing up for what they fear could be one of the deadliest summers for migrants sneaking into the United States. The U.S. Senate is debating a bill that could lock the border tighter than ever, and activists fear the flow of migrants is moving to an even hotter and more remote section of desert than the current favorite, an area south of Tucson, Ariz., where hundreds of people have died since 1994.

And consider this passage:

In southern Arizona, Border Patrol agents routinely run across people vomiting uncontrollably in the summer heat, their skin clammy, their eyes glazed over, said Aerr Eltringham, a Border Patrol spokesman in Tucson. Some migrants are found dead.
On a recent afternoon, agents for the Mexican government's Grupo Beta aid group distributed pamphlets to migrants preparing to cross. The pamphlets recommend carrying plenty of water, food and salt, and advise migrants to keep their clothing on to avoid dehydration and sunburn. If the heat gets to be too much, the pamphlets advise setting a fire to summon rescuers.

When did this new usage begin? Why use the word migrant as opposed to immigrant? The American Heritage Dictionary (wait, perhaps we're not allowed to quote from that in this debate) defines migrant as "a worker who travels from one area to another in search of work" while it defines immigrant as "one who enters and settles in a foreign country." The latter term defines the individual in terms of his movement from nation to nation, the former defines him or her in terms of their economic motivation. I'm not saying one term describes the phenomenon better than the other, but I don't ever remember the migrant word being widely used when describing illegal border crossings from Mexico. I have an AP style guide at work and I'll check it on Thursday. Base10 doesn't like this sort of thing. It reeks of newspeak and is doubleplusungood.
- posted by Base10 @ 6:08 PM