Biden's reference to 'an illegal' upsets some Democrats — but they say they're still sticking with him

Julie Tsirkin is a correspondent covering Capitol Hill.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden received widespread praise from Democrats for his fiery State of the Union speech Thursday night, when he leaned in on issues that will likely be central to the 2024 election. But one of the moments that struck a discordant note with some of his allies was on the issue of immigration, when Biden referred to an undocumented immigrant as “an illegal.

“What are you against?” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, an immigration advocacy organization, said, “Obviously, language matters, but so does the intent behind it. While it was an unfortunate word choice in a heated moment of heckling in a wider context of this speech, President Biden was quite clear in drawing a stark contrast with the dehumanizing language and policies of his predecessor.” “I wouldn’t have used the word illegal,” Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif.

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