This week, Arizona Daily Wildcat managing editor Bethany Barnes asked readers to weigh in on newsroom policy: What kind of rhetoric should we use to cover the immigration debate? What does it mean to use “illegal” or “undocumented” before the word “immigrant”? We asked. You answered.

Facebook comments
Considering they broke the LAW, they are ILLEGAL, this isn’t even a debate. If you and I break the law we did something ILLEGAL, This is no different.
— Christopher Summerhays

If I spray paint your exterior walls am I an undocumented street artist or are my actions illegal?
— Seth Alu

How can a human being be ‘illegal’?
— Shani McCollum

I think that when you come into a country without the proper paperwork and without following USA procedure according to law it is illegal, and therefore the term illegal immigrant is appropriate.
— Louise Scharf

Illegal alien. Why not speak the truth with our words and not bullshit lying? Read the book “1984” … and censorship of our language.
— James Gordon Patterson

Online comments
If we go by the facts, then it would be “criminal immigrants” since arriving or remaining in the country illegally is a crime under the US Code. Even those who arrive on a visitor’s visa and remain here can be classified as criminals if the visa was obtained under false pretenses. Albeit, they would not be criminals just because of the unlawful entry, but because of the fraud and perjury involved in the visa process.
So, IMPO, the term should be “criminal aliens”.
— augustoperez

No, you should not use “illegal” to describe people, it’s not only inaccurate, it’s basically “othering” language that dehumanizes.
— Ramon

When is that criminal ever going to face justice for his crimes,and be deported? Anybody else that has used false documents(He admitted to doing it) and commiting perjury(he admitted to it) and being here illegally,etc,would be in prison,then deported.
— David Burleson

Uh, I’d refer to someone who drives without a license as an illegal driver. It’s a crime to do so, just as it’s a crime to come into this country via any method other than the legal process. There is no need for another term. Illegal immigrants are illegal immigrants.
— Kevin Wos