A person can be an undocumented immigrant, or a visitor overstaying a visa, but nowhere, ever, is it “illegal” to be a person. Continuing to use that term dehumanizes vulnerable and desperate human beings, often based on their race/place of origin and economic status while perpetuating and exacerbating racial and socioeconomic divides which already exist here.

Such discriminatory speech not only vulgar, offensive, and inflammatory, it’s against the rules.