Biden Regrets Using 'Illegal Immigrant' Expression... "He Is an Undocumented Immigrant"

Immigrant Who Killed Female College Student Referred to as 'an Illegal' in State of the Nation Address

U.S. President Joe Biden recently expressed regret for referring to a Venezuelan immigrant accused of killing a female college student in Georgia as "an illegal" during his State of the Union address.

On the 9th (local time), President Biden, in an interview with MSNBC, responded to related questions by saying that he does not want to disparage any group and wants to distinguish himself from former President Donald Trump. He expressed "deep remorse" for using that expression during the State of the Union address, according to AP News and others.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

In the interview, President Biden said, "I should not have used the term 'illegal.' It should be 'undocumented.'"

In the past, people who entered the U.S. without going through official immigration procedures were commonly referred to as "illegal immigrants," but during Trump's presidency, Democrats who emphasized respect for immigrants' rights have used terms like "undocumented" or "unauthorized" instead of "illegal."

Earlier, Biden's remark came during an impromptu response to Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene shouting that Raiken Riley, who was killed last month in Georgia, was killed by "an illegal." Greene had mentioned that bipartisan agreements on border security were reached in the Senate but were blocked due to opposition from former President Trump.

At that time, President Biden immediately responded, "By an illegal immigrant, yes. But do you know how many people are killed by legal immigrants?" When it was revealed that the suspect who killed nursing student Riley in Georgia last month was an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, Republicans highlighted the case to attack the Biden administration's border policies.

In the interview that day, President Biden emphasized the difference between himself and Trump, saying, "When I talked about the difference between Trump and me at the border (when I visited the border), one of the things I said was that Trump called immigrants pests, said these people contaminated the blood of America. I said I would not do what he did. I will not treat these people rudely."

However, on the 8th, just the day before, when reporters asked if he regretted using the term "illegal" during the State of the Union address, he opened with "Well, I probably" and paused briefly before answering, "I don't (regret it)."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.