Immediately upon taking office, Joe Biden reversed President Trump’s “stay-in-Mexico” policy. Under that policy, immigrants seeking asylum were required to stay in Mexico or their home country while applying for asylum in the United States.

The alternative – followed by the preceding Obama Administration – is for the immigrants to enter the country with the proviso that they have to show up for a hearing some months or years in the future to determine their asylum claim. Of course, many immigrants never showed up for their hearings, and simply remained in the country illegally.

Which brings us to a semantics point. People who choose words precisely call these immigrants who are in the county illegally, “illegal immigrants.” Other people, whose choice of words is subordinate to their political leanings, instead use various euphemisms.  

The euphemism crowd wants not to call illegal immigrants “illegal immigrants” because such a term suggests that they are acting illegally. Most of us frown on illegal acts (though a growing number apparently don’t).

Think of it as a branding strategy, something like calling garbage collectors “sanitation engineers” or calling communists “liberals.”

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