Whether you think the term is fairly applied or not, the term "illegal alien" certainly chafes some of the recipients. Beyond the term is the reality of why people risk legal action and occasionally life and limb to remain in a country where they have no official status.
Here's where immigration lawyer J.J. Mullen Sepúlveda steps in. He works at the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of California-Davis, and he has many stories to tell. His first book is No Human Is Illegal: An Attorney on the Front Lines of the Immigration War. We hear his thoughts about process and people.