A Princeton University professor suggested that those who use the phrase “illegal immigrant” lay the groundwork for mass shootings.

“What does it mean to have a discourse in which people are dehumanized?” Princeton University professor Eddie Glaude said, appearing Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press to comment on the El Paso, Texas shooting, according to NewsBusters. The term "illegal immigrant" "places that person outside of a certain kind of sense of empathy and decency."

“You set the stage for people who are even more on the extreme to act violently"

“You set the stage for people who are even more on the extreme to act violently,” Glaude said, referring to the use of this term, as well as ones like "infestation.”

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He then proceeds to take aim at President Donald Trump, saying the shooter who killed more than 20 people in El Paso used language that was almost the “exact same language of the President of the United States.”

Former North Carolina Republican Gov. Pat McCrory was discussing the topic during the segment with Glaude.

McCrory said “I’m not going to condemn people who use [the] illegal immigrant term,” to which Glaude responded “of course! Why not? Why not?”

“We have a series of laws on the book[s] against illegal immigration,” McCrory started, according to the NewsBusters transcription of the rest of the interview. "If we get rid of those laws, why don’t we just open up--"

"No human being is illegal!” Glaude interjected.

Campus Reform contacted the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) to get feedback on the term “illegal immigrant.”

“Illegal alien is the legally and factually correct term for people who are not lawfully in the United States. The term ‘illegal' refers to a person’s immigration status, not their worth as a human being,” Dale Wilcox, executive director and general counsel at IRLI, said. “Those who seek a borderless America are trying to blur the lines of what is legal and illegal. It is part of a campaign to normalize illegal activity so that the public will go along with sweeping amnesty. This thinking should be rejected.”

Campus Reform reached out to both Glaude and Princeton but did not receive comment in time for publication.