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| Reuters |
"These are undocumented people. I shouldn't have used illegal," the president stated in an interview with MSNBC.
Biden recalled that, during his speech delivered on Thursday before both chambers of Congress, he highlighted the differences between his policies and those of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021), the future Republican candidate for the November elections.
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"I spoke about the differences between Trump and me. One of the aspects I mentioned was the border issue and how he refers to these people, saying they poison the blood," Biden explained.
"I'm not going to treat anyone so disrespectfully. Look, they are the ones who have built our country. They are the reason why our economy is growing. And if we need to control the border, do it in a more orderly way, but I don't share his vision at all," he added.
The incident occurred on Thursday when Biden responded off-the-cuff to the shouts of far-right Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who interrupted him while he was delivering his State of the Union address.
The legislator asked Biden to say the name of Laken Riley, a Georgia student allegedly murdered by a Venezuelan migrant, to which the president responded by saying: "Laken Riley was an innocent young woman who was murdered by an illegal migrant. It's true. But, how many of the thousands of people murdered are by illegal migrants?".
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The use of the term illegal generated criticism from Democratic Party legislators, to which Biden belongs. For example, Democratic Congressman Chuy García, born in Mexico, declared himself "deeply disappointed to hear him use the word illegal".
In addition, legislator Joaquín Castro opined that Biden's language was "dangerously close" to that used by Trump, who referred to migrants as illegals.
The next day, the White House defended Biden, highlighting the compassion that has guided the president's immigration policies, as his spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre, said in a meeting with a small group of journalists.
Biden's campaign also urged on Friday to contextualize the president's comment and compare it with the policies that Trump has promised to implement if he returns to the White House and range from mass deportations to the construction of giant centers to detain undocumented migrants.