Democrats in Minnesota and across the country are infuriated that President Joe Biden referred to an alleged murderer and illegal alien as an “illegal” during the president’s State of the Union address on Thursday. Specifically, President Biden was referring to the illegal immigrant who has been charged with murder in the killing of Laken Riley.
On Feb. 22, 2024, Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was kidnapped and brutally murdered while going for a run near the University of Georgia campus in Athens, Ga. Jose Ibarra was subsequently arrested and charged with murder. Ibarra illegally crossed into the United States via the southern border in 2022. Despite being arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the New York Police Department for different offenses, the Venezuelan was never deported.
Republicans at Thursday’s State of the Union wore badges bearing Riley’s name and demanded that the president do something in the wake of this tragedy and the immigration crisis that caused it. During the State of the Union, President Biden did speak about the situation. Appearing to blunder Laken Riley’s name, the president said, “Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal.”
MTG just bullied Biden into saying "Lincoln Riley was kiIIed by an illegal" pic.twitter.com/i6WindtMar
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 8, 2024
In response, left-wing Democrats have expressed outrage that President Biden referred to this alleged criminal and illegal alien as an “illegal.” Just after President Biden’s speech concluded, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota put out a social media post on X saying, “Let me be clear: No human being is illegal.”
This message was parroted by Democrats all over the country. In Minnesota, state Rep. Maria Isa Perez-Vega, D-St. Paul, re-posted Congresswoman Omar’s message. Jason Chavez, a member of the Minneapolis City Council, also put out a statement saying, “No human is illegal.”
A myriad of other Democrats, including Congresswomen Cori Bush, Ayanna Pressley, and Delia Ramirez, put out social media posts with the exact same message. Last night, Nancy Pelosi went on CNN and said President Biden should have used the word “undocumented” when referring to the illegal alien.
Congressman Chuy Garcia, D-Illinois, put out a statement saying, “As a proud immigrant, I’m extremely disappointed to hear President Biden use the world ‘illegal.'”
None of the Democrats acknowledged that Jose Ibarra is in fact an illegal immigrant in the United States of America who has been charged with killing Laken Riley.
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Laken Riley Act just hours before President Biden’s State of the Union took place. The proposed law would increase the number of circumstances in which federal immigration authorities are required to detain illegal immigrants. Further, the law would allow states to sue the federal government for failure to enforce immigration law.
While the Republican majority and a few dozen Democrats voted in favor of the law, 170 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives voted against it. However, the Laken Riley Act is unlikely to advance given the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate.
This article was updated to more accurately describe Ibarra’s legal history.
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
