So yesterday I got into an argument on Twitter with Mary Moreno of the Center for Community Change about my use of the term "illegal immigrant" to refer to people who reside in the United States illegally. She noted a push by Colorlines magazine to stop using the word "illegal" to refer to the undocumented. Moreno argues that "illegal immigrant," like "illegal," has the purpose of "denying their humanity."
Somewhat conveniently, Nicole at Postbourgie wrote a post about the general argument over the use of these terms:
For the record, I don't like the term “illegals.” If you're going to call people “illegals”, let's be fair and apply it to everyone who has ever done anything illegal. That would include me, you, Lou Dobbs, jaywalkers, underage drinkers, and almost everyone I know over the age of 10.
But “illegal immigrant”? The simple fact is that if one immigrates without a visa, or stays after the visa expires, that is illegal. I'm not saying there aren't justifiable reasons for doing so, but that doesn't make it any less against the law.
This is basically where I stand on the question. "Illegals" is transparently an epithet, like "anchor babies," meant to dehumanize the targets. "Illegal immigrants" may inadvertently harm the cause of immigration-reform advocates, but unlike "illegals," it strikes me as a facially neutral term that advocates don't like, much the same way that people who support abortion rights often prefer "pro-choice" to "pro-abortion." It also serves to distinguish between the legal and illegal versions of a particular act, where as "illegal" is, again, transparently and deliberately reductive. Tim Lee had a very poignant and funny post about this a while ago that's worth reading again.
There's a similar argument actually, over the use of the term "formerly incarcerated people" instead of "ex-felon." I use both just as I use "unauthorized" and "undocumented" as well as "illegal," mostly as a writing choice to avoid repetition rather than as a political statement. But advocates of criminal-justice reform prefer the former. I'm not wedded to "illegal immigrants" or "ex-felons," however, and I think I could be persuaded to stop using either by an argument that isn't premised on how it affects the political efforts of advocacy groups.
