ABSTRACT
The manner in which American society talks and writes about unauthorized immigration has changed significantly over the last several decades, entailing a growing emphasis on the legality of migrants. Through the 1930s, the categories employed to describe unauthorized immigrants were such that they differentiated largely between “legitimate” and “illegitimate” or “ineligible” immigrants.4 The contemporary emphasis on “illegals” (as opposed to “wetbacks” or “undesirables”) is of relatively recent origin. A database
search of judicial decisions, for example, found no reference to the term illegal in regards to immigrants prior to 1950.5 Over the last few decades, however, public discourse has increasingly employed the term to describe unauthorized immigrants to the point where, today, it is almost exclusively the term of choice.
