Why does the medial always refer to illegal aliens and those seaking refugee status at the border as "immigrants"?

@jason2 They aren't. Immigrants are processed through Immigration. They have been given the legal right to reside in the united states on a perminant basis.

@BayouBoudin perhaps if you're talking from a purely legal standpoint, you'd be correct. however, no such indication of context was given, and colloquially, an immigrant is just a person who left one country and somehow is settling within another or seeking to.