President Biden waded directly into the dangerous waters of immigration in his State of the Union address Thursday, but he bungled the name of Laken Riley, the female nursing student whose death has been blamed on an illegal immigrant let into the U.S. under his catch-and-release policies.
Mr. Biden was prodded by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who had accosted the president on his way into the chamber and kept saying Riley’s name.
She did it again, shouting “Say her name” at Mr. Biden when he began a section of his speech on the border.
“Lincoln — Lincoln Riley,” Mr. Biden said, holding up a button with her name on it that Republicans were passing out. “An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal.”
He continued: “That’s right, but how many of the thousands of people are being killed by illegals.”
“To her parents, I say, my heart goes out to you, having lost children myself. I understand,” Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Biden’s prepared remarks did not include any reference to Riley, so the remarks appeared to be off-the-cuff.
The bungle of Riley’s name roiled conservative social media, and his use of “an illegal” to describe Riley’s killer angered liberals who said the term is archaic and insulting.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has even banned use of the term “illegal alien” for his employees.
Authorities say Jose Ibarra, an illegal immigrant caught and released in 2022 under Mr. Biden’s border policies and protected from deportation by sanctuary city policies, killed Riley while she was out for a morning jog on the University of Georgia campus on Feb. 22.
Her death, and several other high-profile crimes blamed on illegal immigrants, have deepened an already venomous debate over immigration and the border.
Mr. Biden was speaking just hours after the House passed the Laken Riley Act in a bipartisan vote. The bill would require the Department of Homeland Security to detain illegal immigrants accused of theft offenses.
The bill was seen as a key test for the politics of immigration, and the 37 Democrats who joined Republicans in backing the bill underscored how the issue has shifted in recent weeks.
“Laken Riley is dead because of Joe Biden’s policies,” said Rep. Jeff Van Drew, New Jersey Republican.
Mr. Biden, in his remarks, didn’t address that charge, but suggested he could stop the unprecedented wave of illegal immigrants with new powers from Congress he said would speed up processing for the migrants.
He said if they could get deportation rulings in “six weeks” rather than six or eight years, they wouldn’t be willing to pay $8,000 to cartels to help them make the attempt to jump the border.
He pleaded with Congress to revive a border bill his administration helped negotiate in the Senate. It was defeated in a bipartisan filibuster, but he said if former President Donald Trump would join him in backing the bill it could pass.
“My Republican friends owe it to the American people: Get this bill done. We need to act now,” Mr. Biden said.
Rep. Mike Collins, a Republican who represents Athens, Georgia, where Riley lived, invited her parents to attend the State of the Union but he said they declined.
He said he would leave the seat empty as a memorial to Riley and other “American victims of illegal-alien crime.”
Mr. Biden’s remarks on immigration didn’t seem to please either side of the debate.
Republicans said he was shifting blame for the border chaos, while immigrant-rights advocates complained that the border shutdown authority in the bill the president is backing would be too harsh on unauthorized migrants.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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