The Grammar of the Adjective Is Not What’s Wrong With ‘Illegal Alien’

The Justice Department recently sent an email instructing U.S. attorneys never to refer to foreign citizens in the U.S. without the appropriate visa as “undocumented.”

“The word ‘undocumented’ is not based in U.S. code and should not be used to describe someone’s illegal presence in the country,” the attorneys were told. The department wants them to use illegal alien.

This spiteful-looking injunction shows contempt for the many people who have objected that illegality cannot be a property of a ...