Newspaper USA Today has irked a number of immigration rights supporters for its editorial decision to use the term “illegal student” in a recent report.

An article penned by Emily Bazar for the daily pertaining to the DREAM Act, federal legislation introduced in Congress that would provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented children who traveled with their parents into the United States before they were 16 years old, is titled “Groups try to delay deportations of illegal students.”

Now Prerna Lal, an author over at DreamActivist, a Web site that has been instrumental in deferring deportation orders for numerous young people who would be helped if the DREAM Act were to become law, asks “‘What the heck is an ‘illegal student?’”

That’s a good question. First off, schooling for primary and secondary education is compulsorily in the United States, meaning that public schools are obligated to teach every child, undocumented or not. Even if Bazar is talking about higher education, universities and colleges are not legally bared from teaching to undocumented immigrants so long as they pay their own tuition bills. (Obtaining financial aid or in-state tuition is another story.) So, if “illegal” is being used by USA Today as an adjective to describe students in the United States, what is it about their status as scholars that would specifically make them illegal?

While it’s not uncommon for other established media outlets to use a term like “illegal immigrant,” a problematic title that assumes an individual is guilty of breaking immigration laws, it’s nearly impossible to be an “illegal student” in the United States.

What’s next? Will there be “illegal Church goers,” or “illegal Guitar Hero players?”