Politix had another interesting questions today: Is it ok to call undocumented people illegal aliens?

Here is my answer:

Hmmm…

illegal – forbidden by law or statute; contrary to or forbidden by official rules, regulations, etc.
alien – a resident born in or belonging to another country who has not acquired citizenship by naturalization; a foreigner

So, an illegal alien is a foreign born person residing in a country under conditions contrary to, or forbidden by, law. This sounds pretty accurate to me.

On the flip side, what exactly does undocumented people mean? Persons without proper documentation? Such an idea would destroy the actual concept under discussion as it would lump together those who have entered the country contrary to the law and citizens who, for whatever reason, do not have documentation (e.g., driver’s license, birth certificate, etc). Depending on the context, this could cover a vast number of people.

This is a great example of what is known as an anti-concept. An anti-concept seeks to combine things on the basis of non-essentials in an attempt to destroy a concept that serves a valid cognitive function. In this case, illegal alien serves to differentiate foreigners who have entered the country in violation of the law from those who did so in compliance with the law (e.g., immigrants or foreign tourists) as well as from those who were born in the country. The concept of undocumented people, if accepted, destroys those distinctions.

Now, if you were to ask whether current immigration law is rational and rights respecting, that is a whole different story. If we had a rational immigration policy it is quite likely that many of those who are illegal aliens today would have been able to enter legally. However, under such a system the concept of illegal alien would still be necessary for the reasons noted above. It would be even more important under such conditions as those who were here illegally would more likely be those whom we would legitimately want to keep from entering the country (i.e., criminals).