Racist -- that's a stretch only liberal bigots could manage.

Perhaps instead of  "illegal immigrant", we should use the term "deportable aliens".  The term "undocumented alien" is just a lie. They have documents, just not the correct ones.  Suprisingly, the term "illegal immigrant" is often somewhat of a misnomer. That's because  United States Code dealing with  mostly classifies aliens here without Visas as "deportable"

Under most circumstances, it is only a misdemeanor to enter the United States improperly. However, continued presence in the United States is not, an ongoing crime (with some exceptions).. Persons who had a legal Visa and overstay the Visa have not committed a crime. They are merely considered deportable and can be removed at the discretion of the US Attorney General.  Those who crossed the border unlawfully are also deportable.  But they have only committed a misdemeanor.

In many cases "illegal immigrants" have not committed any crime under current US Code. So the term is a bit of a misnomer. Perhaps the US Code should change, so that the term is not a misnomer?

To break this down for Downes in simple terms.Illegals are called that because they are illegally in this country.It doesnt matter if they are Irish,German.Mexican,Chinese, or any other nationality. Downes is obviously a racist since he only believes it to be people that are spanish speaking that are illegals.

I prefer a term that is far closer to reality:

Criminal Invaders.

Note: Edited due to lack of coffee.

I don't know if it's accurate but Bill O'Reilly quoted a 17% illegal alien population in U.S. prisons. If it's correct, I'm shocked. In the meantime, Mr. Downes goes on about how the word illegal "pollutes the debate. It blocks solutions" and that it is "a code word for racial and ethnic hatred".

If he wanted solutions he might settle down at his PC and type up a paragraph or two about the prison population, white and brown flight, overextended social services, health care and public schools rather than accuse people of making up "code words".

I am a human pileup of illegality. I am an illegal driver and an
illegal parker and even an illegal walker, having at various times
stretched or broken various laws and regulations that govern those
parts of life.

And this just makes Downes seem like a man looking for excuses for himself. Not a good way to gain favor for your argument.

How about "unlawful intruders" or "uninvited strangers" or "unwanted guests" ? Call 'em anything you want, but it all comes back to ILLEGAL ALIENS".

OH NOEZ!  THEY CALLD ME AN ILLEGAL!  DAT HURT MAH FEELINGS!  IM TOTALLY BUTTHURT!

"a large and largely decent group of people"

Oh really, Mr. Downes?  And how many of these "largely decent" illegal immigrants do you know or come into close contact with as you sit in your ivory tower?  Would you like to hear about my experience?  I'm going to tell you anyway.  At the New Jersey shore, where I own a house, a group of illegal immigrants was allowed to move into a $500,000 townhouse two doors down from me for $600 a month by the absentee owner.  Why, I don't know.  But what I do know is this:  they are a bunch of low-class lowlifes who have made life miserable for the people on this street.  There seems to be about a dozen of them living there with new ones coming and others leaving all the time.  It is a flophouse for illegals. 

They drink all night into the early hours and during the summer they could be heard making a loud racket on an almost nightly basis.  Of course, all of this racket is in Spanish which nobody around here wants to hear.  They are constantly coming and going in their loud, smelly cars which they usually leave idling first for 10-15 minutes at a time.  The exhaust fumes frequently come into our windows and have made my wife nauseated at times.  They gather on the sidewalk in front of "their" townhouse jabbering in loud voices in their foreign language with no regard for anybody else.  I have seen them blowing their noses directly onto the sidewalk and hocking off the deck on the second floor onto the street or sidewalk.  Once a week on recycling days there are at least four 55 gallon trash cans full of beer bottles and cans from their nightly drinking bouts.  Most of them have no visible means of support.  God knows how long they plan to be here.  And this is a middle-class type of neighborhood consisting of families which has never had the pleasure of being exposed to this type of cultural diversity in the past.  The police have been called on numerous occassions but New Jersey is an illegal-friendly state so we basically have no recourse.  They are the scum of the earth.  So, please, Mr. Downes don't preach to me about how they are "largely" a bunch of decent people.  My experience tells me otherwise.

The NYT doesn't understand the meaning of illegal or racist.
I argree with DaveR "criminal invaders" is a more fitting term.

...for conservatives.  I don't think the open borders crowd realizes just how much they are outnumbered on this issue.  That's why the Dems don't talk about it in their debates...they need to keep their views hidden.

I hope the GOP presses the debate in this direction as we move closer to 2008.  It could be the "gay marriage" issue for the upcoming election.   

This is a joke!!!  LOL .  Wonder what the "politically correct" term is?  Non-citizen? Less-than-legal-resident? Citizenship hijacker? Oh well, we call black's "African American's" and 99.99999% of them have never stepped foot in Africa so I can see it coming.

We should call them what they are: illegal-alien-liabilities.

I read some of yall's rants and they seemed to be full of hate. I live in Dallas Area and have none of these problems.  Some of the rants strike me a racist and bigots in the way they are potrayed.  I can see if you bought a 500K home, a mistake in my estimation, and see it being taken over by good ole boys.  I say good ole boys because we have a numnber of families in my nieghborhood that sound similar except they are white.  I guess Im poor white trash. 

Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark.

He hit the nail on the head. Being undocumented is not a CRIME in itself. At most, it is a tort offense, off limits in criminal courts. My views on this issue have changes over the past several months. I used to be an "enforce-and-deport" supporter. But as I have seen how such efforts are so economically damaging to the country, my position has shifted. And Noel... by automatically assuming that supporters of immigrants' rights are leftists, it is YOU that is showing stereotyping. After all, people like Jeff Jacoby and Linda Chavez are FAR from being leftists, don't you think?

Since the word modifies not the crime but the whole person, it goes too far. It spreads, like a stain that cannot wash out. It leaves its target diminished as a human, a lifetime member of a presumptive criminal class. People are often surprised to learn that illegal immigrants have rights. Really? Constitutional rights? But aren't they illegal? Of course they have rights: they have the presumption of innocence and the civil liberties that the Constitution wisely bestows on all people, not just citizens.

Extraordinary nonsense, wouldn't you agree? After all, any alien presently in this country illegally can indeed rectify the situation. He or she is only a "lifetime member of a presumptive criminal class" if he or she continues to violate the law or the law is changed.

How is this nonsense? He is precisely, completely, totally, 100% correct.

George W. Bush is not a full-fledged conservative, but I still support his presidency. (Although I am rethinking this position daily!) Still, I'd rather have him as president than ANY of the Democrats. Merry Christmas 2007.

Not surprising that the New York Time authors are trying to reclassify 'illegal immigrant' as racist. Its a play straight from the Mao's Little Red Book of Communism or Stalin.

When critics use a term to describe you, ban the word.

Another sterling example of how liberals are anything but liberal.

Many are secretly fascists at heart who seek to ban free speech. Free speech meaning anything that is critical of them. Example: the "Fairness Doctrine" -- squelch the trouble makers.

This man is the iconic leftist. Let's rename something so it no longer seems bad. You will now feel OK about it because it is no longer 'illegal'. Personally, I like Illegal Invaders. It is more accurate considering that most of them do not want to assimilate, just grab any wealth they can and ship it south while culturally remaining non-American. And... why are they here? Simple - their crappy culture caused them to trash their own economy/country. So much for all cultures are equal.

what's next? This guy whines that once you've committed the crime you're stuck util you make it right by getting out and starting over?

Face it. It's like pedophelia. You tar yourself voluntarily with a brush of an illegal act, who are you to complain when you aren't "forgiven and forgotten"? Don't like that? How about you don't commit the crime (invading a sovereign nation) in the first place?

Sheesh.