immigration

I'm not supporting any of the hardcore anti-mexican rhetoric that's been all the rage recently or any "tough illegal immigrant laws" or any of that... I am pointing out this article only because it made me laugh a bit.

first of all how can one be a "law-abiding illegal immigrant"? can one of the SG grammar police please explain how the adjectives "illegal" and "law-abiding" can be describing the same subject?

also, the bit about 'If we get rid of all the 11 million (illegal) immigrants, send people back to Mexico, who's going to build the wall?' was awesome. I'll be quoting that a lot

Oxymoron?

Well, on one hand you wake up in the middle of night to find three guys in your house, helping themselves to your stuff, on the other there's the people you migh pay a few bucks to clean your pool.

Unless you see those as the same thing then there's a real need for a term or phrase which separates them. Perhaps I'm missing a nice and simple alturnative, but if not then "law-abiding illegal immigrant" is going to have to do.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. We have a similar situation/debate here in the UK. Many people feel the need to distinguish between the blatantly criminal lifestyles of some illegal immigrants and the hard-working, comparatively ethical lifestyles of others.

I've been stolen from by a member of almost every race that makes up our population here in Oz.

I must say though, the most persistent thieves would be those in the State Government. Eric Ripper, I'm looking at you.