Illegal alien or Economic refugee

Illegal means criminal, and alien feels spooky. Are spooky alien criminals invading the country?

And the The American Immigration Law Foundation tells us the likely reason why not:

The problem of crime in the United States is not ’caused’ or even aggravated by immigrants, regardless of their legal status. This is hardly surprising since immigrants come to the United States to pursue economic and educational opportunities not available in their home countries and to build better lives for themselves and their families. As a result, they have little to gain and much to lose by breaking the law. Undocumented immigrants in particular have even more reason to not run afoul of the law given the risk of deportation that their lack of legal status entails.

This Thanksgiving an illegal saved a American boys life at the cost of deportation.

Cordova was taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol and agreed to return to his home in the Mexican state of Sonora without going through formal deportation proceedings.

Cordova came to the border again Tuesday, where officials from both countries held the ceremony in a U.S. Customs and Border Protection building at the Nogales port of entry. His mother, Almalida Soberanes, looked on proudly.

“He did what he had to do,” Soberanes said. “He took care of that little boy and protected him.”

The district director for U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., said Cordova deserved the opportunity to come to America to work and that the congressman plans to introduce legislation that will let him get a special visa. Such legislation rarely passes, but Grijalva aide Ruben Reyes said it was the only way they knew of to show their thanks.

Sounds more like a good neighbor than a criminal. And if the Presidential candidates changed the name, they would have to deal with WTO GATS trade style failures with our neighbors.

And the positive side of spooky aliens goes unnoticed. Who wants to be known as an exploiter of refugees?

The term means nothing as a useful stereotype on which to build policy, and hides the failure of nations doing the trade NAFTA-CAFTA thing. How convenient for all.