San Diego County decided to alter the terminology used in official legal documents, changing "illegal immigrant" to "undocumented immigrant" on Tuesday.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports Greg Cox of the Board of Supervisors led the effort to change the term.

"It's just a different environment today," Cox said. "I think times are changing and I think this was the right time."

Cox argued that federal legislation uses "undocumented immigrant," and that it made sense for San Diego to follow suit in that regard.

The supervisor also urged the county to pull support of federal policies that deny government benefits to undocumented immigrants. He said there was no reason to deny healthcare and education to undocumented children

"There have been a lot of people who have been here for a long time, and to the extent that we should have an educated community, we should be working for that," he said.

It was a controversial decision, even among the usually unanimous Board of Supervisors. Conservative members Dianne Jacob and Bill Horn opposed the change, arguing that it was motivated by political correctness.

"They're still entering the country illegally. I will oppose it. I understand being politically correct, but sometimes I'm not," Horn said.

Jacob felt no motivation to follow the federal language, saying she disagreed with Washington on a number of issues.

Regardless of the opposition, the measure passed 3-2.

The only Democrat on the board, Supervisor Dave Roberts, argued that the change was a significant one.

"Words do matter, and in 2015, we need to use our words correctly," he said.

San Diego's move has been mirrored in other areas of the U.S. as of late. Recently, Texas congressman Joaquin Castro proposed a bill that would remove the term "alien" from federal documentation.

The public's preferred terminology for immigrants has changed several times in the past. Like most of the country, San Diego originally used "illegal alien" in its legislature, shifting to "illegal immigrant," and finally arriving at the latest change.

Although this may be a positive step forward for a county that lies on the U.S.-Mexico border, San Diego still supports federal laws that sanction employees who hire undocumented immigrants and longer sentences for those caught smuggling immigrants, among other measures.