The Los Angeles Times has announced new guidelines for covering immigration.

The goal is to "provide relevance and context and to avoid labels."

That means stories will no longer refer to individuals as "illegal immigrants" or "undocumented immigrants," but instead will describe a person's circumstances.

A memo from The Times' Standards and Practices Committee announcing the change explains the move away from labels:

" 'Illegal immigrants' is overly broad and does not accurately apply in every situation. The alternative suggested by the 1995 guidelines, 'undocumented immigrants,' similarly falls short of our goal of precision. It is also untrue in many cases, as with immigrants who possess passports or other documentation but lack valid visas."