I’ve commented on this before in various immigration discussions, but I just saw it again in a Constitutional Law paper I was reading, and felt like saying something about it.

I am really sick of the “undocumented immigrant/worker” euphemism. To use a not-currently-politically-correct euphemism to make my point about an annoying euphemism - let’s call a spade a spade. They are here illegally. They didn’t lose their papers somewhere. No one forgot to write their name on a ledger when they came across the border. There is no issue of missing documentation. Except the documentation that they are supposed to have to come here/work here without breaking the law.

I’m not an immigrant-bashing protectionist; I have no issues with legal immigration. And I hate the vigilantism of some of the Minuteman-styled groups. But please. If you want to have a serious discussion about immigration and the legal status of immigrants, you can’t keep talking about “undocumented”. It just defeats your entire argument and makes you look/sound stupid.

Even Wikipedia gets it right - go type “undocumented immigrant” into the Wikipedia search box. It takes you to the page titled “Illegal Immigration”.