Illegal vs undocumented

[GeneralMacArthur]

And none of that makes "illegal" an inherently offensive or false term. You're just falling into negative polarization. Don't play along with that.

It’s an offensive term because most of the people who use the term are using it to be offensive. I don’t know why this is so difficult for you to grasp. That’s how language works.

I agree with this but I think this is a ridiculous way to define language.  We can't just let conservatives arbitrarily turn words into slurs just because they start using them.  Especially if we are going to apply it retroactively, or apply it to people like Biden who spent 75 years of his life using the term with no problem and it only became a slur in the last five years for no other reason than because conservatives started using it.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

Calling something “illegal” typically refers to a violation of criminal law.
Immigration laws are not criminal laws.  If you enter the country without a visa, you are not committing a crime.

So referring to an undocumented immigrant as an “illegal” is almost certainly not accurate under the most common interpretation of “illegal”.

If we must use “illegal” as a noun to refer to a person, it would make more sense to use it to refer to anyone who has committed a crime.  Which is true of this guy, but not of most undocumented immigrants.