Background: On December 15, USA TODAY ran an article titled “Groups try to delay deportations of illegal students,” in which they called young immigrant students in the United States “illegal students.”

What on earth is an ‘illegal student?’

I was taken aback at this relatively new and completely inaccurate terminology and started a petition on Change.org to get the newspaper to retract the statement and re-consider using the word illegal in reference to immigrants. It turns out that USA TODAY has referred to undocumented immigrant youth as “illegal students” before in another article. Well, they would be smart to not do it ever again, as would other publications.

Today, 5 days, 500 emails and a few calls later, USA TODAY pulled a cheap shot that I could see from a mile away. They changed “illegal students” to “illegal immigrant students” as if that really makes it more accurate. New York Times also used this to reference immigrant youth quite recently. How hard is it to refer to us as undocumented youth or “immigrant youth without legal status?” Any other phrase is just plain laziness and ignorance. And the “No 1 Newspaper in USA” didn’t bother making a statement or correction as of tonight.

This forces the issue into a longer public education campaign and the need for mainstream media to re-evaluate their policies in referring to undocumented immigrants. They simply fail to grasp the issue that no person can be illegal.

At the same time, this subtle change tells us that a few hundred emails and calls have the power to drive change. There should be some solace in knowing that any media source that refers to immigrant students as “illegal students” will have to bear the brunt of young immigrants who simply want the right to define themselves.

As a positive follow-up to this action, WPTF Radio which regularly features Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, called and emailed us over the weekend, each time asking to speak to us concerning “illegal students in deportation.” We took a hard-line and said, “We will grant the interview but you can’t refer to us as illegal or illegal students.” They had to agree since we had details they needed. Result: They refered to our community as undocumented students.

It’s a small way in which immigrant youth are trying to take back power to define ourselves.

I worked hard on this specific action and still learned a lot in the process. One, that we need a team of trained volunteers for campaigns (Apply here), since it takes away from all the other important internal work that we do. Two, that running campaigns during the holidays might not be such a bright idea. And three, I really want very little to do with USA today and everyday.

We also never really got our 50K membership base involved with a mass action mailing though we certainly got everything ready. We’ll touch base with everyone soon on where we want to go from here. Taking on the mainstream media to halt the use of the word ‘illegal’ is certainly a long-term and daunting process. The media is not really our enemy and we can use them for a lot of good but still, we need to establish the right to define ourselves and discard dehumanizing adjectives that do nothing to contribute positively to the immigration debate. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.