content: This is very important. You are absolutely right. Words carry meaning, and the implications that you essentially accept by using certain words sets the stage for movement of the entire frame of the conversation. They know this, and half of psychological operations using the media rely on this. I prefer to use "aliens". It is accurate and abrasive enough. "Illegal aliens". Even using a term containing immigrant is not good enough. Most leftists today,  or even just normies, are so jaded to the law (after watching so many just skirt the law, and also with law enforcement getting trashed constanty) that the term "illegal" carries almost no weight because they live in a world where feels dictate the truth of a matter. So then you're left with the operative term being immigrant, which is exactly what opens these idiots up to "This country was built by immigrants. Your ancestors immigrated here." Mind you, those arguments themselves are easily won. But we'd rather just not go there and reinforce the idea these are immigrants at all.