Non-Political Description and Discussion
“Undocumented worker” is one of a host of euphemisms for people in the U.S. who do not fit the definition of a resident alien or a citizen. There is a lot of confusion over what is the proper term for this class of people in the country partly because of the intensely charged political atmosphere surrounding them and because there is no legally defined term in federal law for their status. Even the federal government is confused because I found at least 11 different terms being used to describe the same group of people. One study done by Homeland Security refers to the same group of people as undocumented immigrants, illegal immigrants, illegal aliens, and refers to another document about “unauthorized immigrants” all within six pages.

To separate neutral terms from the euphemisms that have been coined for political purposes we need to look at which terms have legal definitions.

We all know what a citizen is but what if you’re not a citizen but are living in the United States? The Immigration and Nationality Act defines an alien as “any person not a citizen or national of the United States.” The act classifies aliens remaining within the US on a permanent basis as immigrants without regards to an individual’s legal status.

So an alien is someone who isn’t a U.S. citizen and an immigrant is an alien who is permanently living in the U.S. So far so good. And what are the legally defined terms for people who are immigrants to the country?

Resident Alien- Applies to non-U.S. citizens currently residing in the United States. The term is applied in three different manners: Permanent Resident, Conditional Resident, and Returning Resident. Note that all three manners define a particular legal status.

Permanent Resident- Any person not a citizen of the United States who is residing in the U.S. under legally recognized and lawfully recorded permanent residence as an immigrant. Also known as “Permanent Resident Alien“, “Lawful Permanent Resident,” “Resident Alien Permit Holder,” and “Green Card Holder.”

Immigrant- Any alien in the United States, except one legally admitted under specific non-immigrant categories. An illegal alien who entered the United States without inspection, for example, would be strictly defined as an immigrant under the INA but is not a permanent resident alien.

Migrant- A person who leaves his/her country of origin to seek residence in another country.

There doesn’t appear to be a legal definition for an immigrant who doesn’t meet any of the legal definitions above. The only immigrants defined are those who have a some form of federally recognized legal status. So how does the federal government refer to immigrants who fall outside of the above legal definitions? Take your pick.

There are a variety of terms which can be found in official government agency reports and press releases: undocumented worker, unauthorized worker, illegal alien, undocumented alien, unauthorized resident alien, undocumented migrant, unauthorized migrant, illegal migrant, undocumented immigrant, unauthorized immigrant, and illegal immigrant.

By looking at the how these terms are constructed we can can peel away the politically charged phrases from the neutral, if not legally defined, ones. The phrases use the legally defined words “alien,” “immigrant,” “migrant,” as well as the generic term “worker” for the noun. It is then modified either by illegal, unauthorized, or undocumented.

“Worker” is not a legal term that relates to being an immigrant or an alien except as a general descriptor. A person can be an immigrant and not be a worker and vice-versa. I am a citizen and could be called an undocumented worker if I was working a job for cash on nothing more than a handshake with my employer. I’d be an illegal worker if my employer didn’t file the appropriate paperwork with the government or didn’t make FICA deductions from my pay. I might even be an unauthorized worker if I took one too many bathroom breaks.

An alien is anybody who isn’t a U.S. citizen so being an “illegal alien” doesn’t even make sense. Queen Elizabeth, who doesn’t have any legal status in America nor lives here, would qualify as an illegal alien. It’s a meaningless phrase which was only reinforced by Phil Collins who, in addition to having a hit about an imaginary girlfriend with an imaginary name, sang about illegal aliens in a very catchy way. “Undocumented alien” is just as meaningless for the same reasons but not nearly as catchy to sing. “Unauthorized Resident Alien” carries some weight however. A resident alien is actually a legal entity but the word “unauthorized” is weak and imprecise. You may not be authorized to take a day off from your job but that doesn’t make it illegal.

A migrant is effectively the same thing as an immigrant so let’s deal with them together. “Undocumented immigrant” is a very weak phrase. One doesn’t even need documents to be legally considered an immigrant. If an immigrant is returned to the home country by immigration authorities and a record is made of that, does that make them a documented immigrant? If the someone immigrated, became a permanent resident alien but then all the records related to his legal status was destroyed, is he then an undocumented immigrant? Unauthorized is stronger than undocumented but still has its problems. A person doesn’t need authorization or legal standing to become an immigrant. All you need to do is cross the border and find a place to live.

Immigrants who go through the legal process to have a federally recognized immigration status are formally called resident aliens and there are three categories of legal resident aliens. It makes sense that immigrants who don’t go through that legal process should be called Illegal Resident Aliens. That is the term I’ll use from now on. I doubt this will catch on though because of all the political points that are to be made by calling these people something else.

Political Descriptions & Benefits
Those who have a sympathetic, if not positive, view of illegal resident aliens work to soften the connotations inherent in the phrase. To be illegal is to imply criminality. No one wants criminals to immigrate except other criminals. Saying someone is unauthorized instead softens the implication. All of us have done unauthorized things at one time or another but that doesn’t mean you’re a criminal. It does still imply that what you did wasn’t right. If that is still too strong, remove the right and wrong aspect of it by saying that someone is undocumented. Being undocumented is like not getting your high school diploma. It would be good to have but you’re not wrong if you don’t. It’s more of an inconvenience than a matter or morality.

So now that you have weakened the descriptor from something that implies criminality to one that’s more about inconvenience, it’s time to modify the noun used. Resident alien, despite being the legal term for immigrants, is not a phrase that most Americans would recognize or would intuitively describe what it refers to. Saying you know a resident alien sounds like you have a Vulcan or a Wookie as a next door neighbor. So you don’t want to refer to aliens.

How about immigrant? Everybody knows immigration is a legal process and since hard work was put in to remove the implications of legality in the descriptor, the last thing one would want to do is invoke it in the noun. Let’s call them workers instead. That’s a nice, bland, and generic word for somebody and it implies that they are contributing to society and taking care of themselves. Perhaps illegal resident aliens are contributing to society and taking care of themselves but it has no bearing on a person’s legal status in the U.S.

In order to have a reasonable discussion on the national problem of illegal resident aliens, you first have to remove the euphemisms and name the subject at hand. Unfortunately, the atmosphere is now so polarized that a reasonable discussion and resolution of the problem is not only highly unlikely, but near impossible until all can agree on what to call the problem to begin with.