Reply #42: Not a question of PC- ness, Has to do with linguist accuracy.

[yellowcanine]

Human beings, by definition, cannot be "illegal". Full stop.
Labeling the argument "political correctness" is not going to change that. What exactly, does "pc" mean anyway? You do know that historically it was right wing terminology mostly used to denigrate efforts to prevent hate speech, right? And defending calling them "illegals" comes pretty close to justifying xenophobia, imo.

I would add that "calling it what it is" has also historically been used to justify all manner of racist, sexist, and xenophobic language.