Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) recently claimed the following:
“If someone calls you illegal, that is not a thing. We have people that are undocumented. We have people that have tried to go through the process, and unfortunately, because there are those that feel like it wasn’t worth the investment.”
“People, historically, have been waiting, before COVID, 6-7 years to try to get anywhere in the courts.”
They can be illegal even if they are undocumented, or, more accurately, because they are.
Let’s examine.
In the eyes of pro-migrant organizations, being “undocumented” does not mean illegal, but rather lacking proof of legality.
Many groups consider the term “illegal” to be misleading because it denotes criminality and labels the person, instead of the actions the person has taken.
“We define the term ‘undocumented’ broadly to include all immigrants who reside in the United States without legal status,” Immigrants Rising explains on their website.
In 2013, the AP Stylebook no longer sanctioned the term “illegal immigrant” or the use of “illegal” to describe a person. This was reaffirmed in 2022 when the AP Stylebook posted on social media, “We don’t use the terms illegal immigrant, unauthorized immigrant, irregular migrant, alien, an illegal, illegals or undocumented (except when quoting people or documents that use these terms).”
Many proponents of the term “undocumented” claim it is because migrants often have documents, just “not the right ones.”
What is illegal?
8 U.S. Code § 1325 makes it illegal to: Enter or attempt to enter the U.S. outside of designated immigration ports; avoid being inspected or examined by immigration officers; enter the U.S. by lying or concealing material facts; enter the U.S. to evade immigration laws by marriage or commercial enterprise.
Additionally, if you’ve been previously deported, the U.S. government can charge you with § 1325(a)(1), but § 1326 is more appropriate and ranges from a Class E to a Class C felony.
It’s also illegal to overstay a visa, but it isn’t a crime.
For § 1325(a), there is a 5-year statute of limitations, so if an alien isn’t charged within that window, he or she can’t ever be. At that point, they are merely here illegally, no different than a visa overstay.
Texas District Court Judge Andrew Hanen addressed this rhetorical issue in his decision of Texas v. U.S.
“The Court uses the phrases ‘illegal immigrant’ and ‘illegal alien’ interchangeably. The word ‘immigrant’ is not used in the manner in which it is defined in Title 8 of the United States Code, unless it is so designated. The Court also understands that there is a certain segment of the population that finds the phrase “illegal alien” offensive. The Court uses this term because it is the term used by the Supreme Court in its latest pronouncement pertaining to this area of the law. See Arizona v. United States, 132 S. Ct. 2492, 2497 (2012).”
In April of 2021, the Biden administration instructed U.S. immigration enforcement agencies to replace the term “illegal alien” (which is used throughout U.S. immigration law) with “undocumented noncitizen.”
So, which is it? Illegal or undocumented?
I return to the prior statement. Yes, some of these people are undocumented, because they entered illegally or overstayed a legal visa. Illegal is far more descriptive and accurate than undocumented.
Undocumented signifies that the person would be legal if he or she had documentation.
This is false. People who cross the border illegally are here, by definition, illegally.
Conclusion: Whether people cross into the U.S. illegally, overstay their VISA, or are here illegally, all should meet the same fate. Not getting new documents. Not a changing of terms.
— Wid Lyman (@Wid_Lyman) March 6, 2025
They should be deported.
*Documents left on the banks of the Rio Grande in Mexico pic.twitter.com/rX3cUpyhFN
In conclusion, whether foreigners enter the U.S. illegally, overstay a visa, or are here illegally for some other reason, they should all meet the same fate:
They should be deported.
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