President Biden expressed regret on Saturday over having used the word “illegal” during his State of the Union address when referring to the Venezuelan migrant who allegedly killed Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.
“An undocumented person. I shouldn’t have used illegal, it’s undocumented,” Biden said during an interview with MSNBC. “And look, when I spoke about the difference between Trump and me, one of the things I talked about in the border was his, the way he talks about vermin, the way he talks about these people polluting the blood. I talked about what I’m not going to do. What I won’t do.”
“I’m not going to treat any, any, any of these people with disrespect. Look, they built the country. The reason our economy is growing. We have to control the border and more orderly flow, but I don’t share his view at all,” Biden added.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, has been charged in the murder of 22-year-old Riley, who was out for a run on the University of Georgia campus when she was attacked.
Ibarra, who illegally entered the country in September 2022 and was released into the U.S. via parole, was arrested in New York City in September 2023 for acting in a manner to injure a child under 17, but he was released by local police before a detainer could be issued. One month later, he was cited in Georgia for misdemeanor shoplifting alongside his brother, Diego Ibarra, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“Lincoln (sic) Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed,” Biden said in the speech after Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) shouted Riley’s name. “By an illegal. That’s right. But how many of thousands of people are being killed by legals?”
Biden’s use of the term “illegal” sparked quick backlash from members of his party.
Representatives Chuy Garcia (D., Ill.) and Joaquin Castro (D., Texas.) joined Representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) Thursday night in criticizing the president for his rhetoric.
“As a proud immigrant, I’m extremely disappointed to hear President Biden use the word ‘illegal,’” Representative Chuy Garcia (D., Ill.) said. Meanwhile, Representative Joaquin Castro (D., Texas) called Biden’s rhetoric “incendiary and wrong.”
During his speech on Thursday, Biden attempted to shift the blame on for the immigration crisis onto Republicans, saying they have refused to work on a bipartisan basis in Congress to advance immigration legislation.
It is true that Senate Republicans voted against the bipartisan bill earlier this month, though opponents said it would normalize high levels of illegal immigration, and Biden elided the fact that his decision to rescind several Trump-era executive orders played a role in exacerbating the border crisis.