User:DKalkin/undocumented

"Illegal alien" and "illegal immigrant" are biased and misleading terms; "undocumented immigrant" is neutral and accurate.

"Illegal" is POV
Living in the United States without citizenship or a visa violates the law, but is not treated like most illegal behaviors. It is a civil offense, not a criminal offense, under current federal law. It is enforced and adjudicated not by the normal criminal justice system but by separate agencies. Many jurisdictions actually forbid police to ask about immigration status.

Moreover, one of the major slogans of the immigrant rights movement in the United States is "no human being is illegal." For Wikipedia to assert that some people are accurately described as "illegal" is biased against the viewpoint of the millions of supporters of this movement in the U.S. and abroad.

"Undocumented" is NPOV
The NPOV policy page tells us:
 * Assert facts, including facts about opinions — but don't assert opinions themselves. There is a difference between facts and opinions. By "fact" we mean "a piece of information about which there is no serious dispute.

The page also recommends:
 * Let the facts speak for themselves.

"Undocumented" is a term which factually describes the behavior which is illegal and which is alleged to make a person illegal. There is no serious dispute about whether immigrants who enter a country illegally lack the required official documents, and are therefore undocumented. There is serious dispute about whether those persons are themselves illegal because of their illegal behavior.

"Undocumented" is not a euphemism. It's true that we wouldn't use the phrase "undocumented drug dealer" or "undocumented murderer." However, we wouldn't use the phrase "illegal drug dealer" or "illegal murderer" either. In everyday conversation, we characterize an illegal behavior by describing the behavior; the fact that it is illegal is not an essential part of the description.

Authoritative sources
"Undocumented" is commonly used in legal documents, dictionary definitions, and news articles. The National Association of Hispanic Journalists has this to say:
 * While many national news outlets use the term "illegal immigrant," this handbook calls for the discussion and re-evaluation of its use. Instead of using illegal immigrant, alternative labels recommended are "undocumented worker" or "undocumented immigrant." Illegal immigrant is a term used to describe the immigration status of people who do not have the federal documentation to show they are legally entitled to work, visit or live here. People who are undocumented according to federal authorities do not have the proper visas to be in the United States legally. Many enter the country illegally, but a large number of this group initially had valid visas, but did not return to their native countries when their visas expired. Some former students fall into the latter category. The term criminalizes the person rather than the actual act of illegally entering or residing in the United States without federal documents. Terms such as illegal alien or illegal immigrant can often be used pejoratively in common parlance and can pack a powerful emotional wallop for those on the receiving end. Instead, use undocumented immigrant or undocumented worker, both of which are terms that convey the same descriptive information without carrying the psychological baggage. Avoid using illegal(s) as a noun.

"Illegal immigrant" returns more Google hits than "undocumented immigrant." But the internet suffers from all sorts of biases, and the majority view is not automatically the encyclopedic one.