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Over fifteen years ago, I documented the phrase "undocumented immigrant" as a euphemism for "illegal alien"2. Google's Ngram viewer shows that "illegal alien" was rather rare from about a century ago until the late 1960s when it shot up, peaking in the late 1970s3. In contrast, "undocumented immigrant" was virtually nonexistent prior to 1970, after which its occurrences gradually increased until they peaked in 2017. Surprisingly, the euphemism didn't surpass in frequency the older phrase until 2016.
William Lutz, in his book Doublespeak Defined from 1999, defines "illegal alien" as "undocumented worker"4. The Ngram viewer shows the latter phrase also nearly nonexistent prior to 1970 when it suddenly surged, peaked ten years later, declined for about a decade, then spiked once more around 1990, hit a lower peak in 2006, then declined since5. So, the word "undocumented" seems to have been introduced around 1970 as a euphemism for "illegal" when applied to immigrants.
I've previously discussed what I call "euphemism inflation"6, which is the way that euphemisms wear out over time and must be replaced. This is why there are so many euphemisms for people who bury dead people, that is, undertakers, morticians, and funeral directors. In fact, there doesn't seem to be a non-euphemistic word for the job. Obviously, dealing with dead bodies is unpleasant, and people don't like to think about death, so a euphemism is de rigueur. However, over time the euphemism becomes tainted by association with the job, and a new one becomes necessary.
Given the phenomenon of euphemism inflation, we can predict that any given euphemism will eventually lose much of its euphemistic force, and there will be a felt need to replace it. Given that "undocumented" has been used as a euphemism, coupled with "worker" or "immigrant", for over a half-century, it is surely past time for replacement. This brings us to the USA Today news report that prompted this entry, which begins with a "Story Summary", probably prepared by an editor, in which we read:
The Laken Riley Act would require ICE to detain immigrants without legal permission who commit theft-related crimes. The bill, named after a Georgia nursing student killed by an immigrant without legal permission, passed with bipartisan support and now heads to the Senate.7
When I first read this, I was confused because the first sentence sounds as though the immigrants in question lacked legal permission to commit thefts, which should go without saying; either that or it was Immigration and Customs Enforcement that lacked permission to detain them, which makes no sense given that the Act in question requires ICE to do so. Similarly, the second sentence seems to say that an immigrant lacked legal permission to kill a student which, again, should be unnecessary to mention.
However, the first sentence of the article itself clears up the mystery: "The new Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed its first bill Tuesday, the Laken Riley Act, named for the 22-year-old Georgia nursing school student killed by a Venezuelan immigrant living in the country without legal permission." So, the immigrant lacked legal permission to live in this country rather than to steal or murder.
Thus, the phrase "immigrant living in the country without legal permission", and the truncated "immigrant without legal permission", appear to be attempts to create a new euphemism for the taboo "illegal immigrant"8? The phrase "illegal alien" occurs once in the article, but only in a quote of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, whereas the word "undocumented" never appears.
While wordiness is often a feature, not a bug, of doublespeak9, the full phrase is rather a mouthful and the truncations lead to ambiguous sentences, such as those quoted above from the summary. For this reason, I doubt that this particular attempt at replacing "undocumented immigrant" will succeed, but it is evidence that "undocumented" has overstayed its welcome.
Notes:
Isn't "rapid turtle" an oxymoron? Also, shouldn't they concentrate on the slower ones?
*"Arctic Blast Prompts Rapid Turtle Rescue Efforts", The Weather Channel, 1/29/2025