By: George Corley
I’m pretty sure it’s criminal. Also, many immigrants found to be in the country illegally are detained — often without adequate evidence, which leads to all kind of issues.
View ArticleBy: acilius
I have a reservation about “illegal immigrant.” It is a long, awkward expression (six syllables, two lexical items, several highly abstract notions embedded in it,) so people will naturally want to...
View ArticleBy: Ellen K.
Being a civil offense doesn’t make something not illegal. And it’s hard to deport someone without detaining them.
View ArticleBy: dan chall (@danchall)
I’m not entirely convinced. “Dances beautifully : beautiful dancer :: thinks deeply : deep thinker” suggests a characteristic of an ongoing activity. “Immigrant” means “someone who has immigrated” as...
View ArticleBy: Daniel
Full disclosure: I’m a functional linguist, so I tend to be skeptical of people talking about what “words mean” in the absence of a person who used those words to encode a specific message. Also, I’m...
View ArticleBy: Neal
Excellent points. I meant to second a suggestion that one person made in one of the news articles I read somewhere: Why not call companies that hire illegal immigrants “illegal employers”?
View ArticleBy: Lune Keltkar
The relevant US Code neither defines nor uses the term “illegal immigrant”; instead, the code defines and uses “unauthorized alien”, a precise term that most closely reflects reality. By your specious...
View ArticleBy: gacorley
The logic would define “illegal driver”, “illegal doctor”, and “illegal pharmacist” in the way you describe, but there are no laws against specious grammar advice, no licensing requirements for...
View ArticleBy: Neal
Yes, “illegal driver” would be an example of the same kind of process that produced “illegal immigrant,” “deep thinker” and “big eater”. I would accept that as a possible meaning, in fact, though I...
View ArticleBy: acilius
I’ve taken the liberty of quoting from this post and some of the comments in a post on my blog. Please let me know if I’ve gone too far. http://losthunderlads.com/2012/11/01/illegals/
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