Rights advocates have slammed United States President Joe Biden for referring to an undocumented immigrant as “an illegal” throughout his State of the Union handle, accusing him of echoing the dehumanising rhetoric of his predecessor Donald Trump.
Throughout Thursday’s speech on the US Capitol, Biden was heckled by Republicans over the killing of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old girl who was allegedly murdered by an undocumented immigrant.
Riley’s dying has change into a rallying cry for conservatives. “[Laken] Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. That’s right — but how many thousands of people are being killed by ‘legals’? To her parents I say, my heart goes out to you,” Biden said.
Rights advocates and progressive lawmakers have lengthy condemned using the time period “illegal” to discuss with human beings who should not have immigration standing within the US or who cross the border with out permits looking for asylum.
“We remind President Biden that no human being is illegal –– and dangerous rhetoric inevitably leads to more violence against our community,” stated Faisal Al-Juburi, chief exterior affairs officer at RAICES, an immigrant assist and advocacy group in Texas.
Let me be clear: No human being is unlawful.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 8, 2024
Members from Biden’s personal Democratic Occasion additionally condemned the president’s remark.
“Let me be clear: No human being is illegal,” Congresswoman Ilhan Omar wrote in a broadly shared put up on the social media platform X.
Joaquin Castro, a Democratic congressman from Texas, stated that, whereas Biden’s handle had “a lot of good” in it, “his rhetoric about immigrants was incendiary and wrong”.
“The rhetoric President Biden used tonight was dangerously close to language from Donald Trump that puts a target on the backs of Latinos everywhere,” Castro wrote on social media.
“Democrats shouldn’t be taking our cues from MAGA extremism,” he added, referring to Trump’s Make America Nice Once more motion.
The previous Republican president — and presumed 2024 GOP nominee — pursued staunch anti-immigration insurance policies throughout his time period within the White Home, together with restrictions on the flexibility of asylum seekers to hunt safety within the US.
Trump additionally continues to frequently use anti-immigrant rhetoric as he campaigns for a second time period within the White Home. He’s broadly anticipated to as soon as once more face off towards Biden in November’s normal election.
In a video posted on his Reality Social platform earlier than the State of the Union, Trump attacked migrants and asylum seekers looking for safety within the US as “illegal alien criminals” and promised to supervise “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history” if he’s re-elected.
We shouldn’t be making an attempt to out-do Republican extremists with merciless and inhumane enforcement insurance policies that fail to maintain our communities protected, which is why I’ve stood towards the provisions within the Senate border deal. As a substitute of surrendering to Republican calls for, we should ship…
— Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (@repdeliaramirez) March 8, 2024
Final yr noticed new information for irregular border crossings into the US. Within the 2023 fiscal yr, for instance, US Customs and Border Safety documented 1,475,669 “encounters” with migrants and asylum seekers arriving irregularly throughout the southern border with Mexico. In December alone, there have been 301,983 “encounters”.
That, in flip, has elevated political stress on the Biden administration to behave, with Republicans and a few Democrats criticising the president for failing to decrease the numbers. Observers have stated Trump and his allies try to make the state of affairs right into a successful election challenge for the Republican Occasion.
Towards that backdrop, Biden himself has pushed for Congress to go a spending invoice that might tighten border safety and create new restrictions on asylum claims. Democrats have accused Republicans of stalling the laws in a bid to assist Trump together with his re-election marketing campaign.
Throughout his State of the Union speech on Thursday evening, Biden stated the invoice would enable Washington to rent extra border officers and grant him the authority “to temporarily shut down the border when the number of migrants at the border is overwhelming”.
“My Republican friends, you owe it to the American people to get this bill done. We need to act,” he stated. “We can fight about the border, or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it. Send me the border bill now!”
Al-Juburi at RAICES, the immigrant rights group in Texas, stated in an announcement that Biden “embraced the toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen in this country, formally adopting a more radical anti-immigrant position” in his speech.
“He succumbed to the pressures of a political climate that is increasingly hostile towards immigrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking people and families.”
At tonight’s #SOTU, @POTUS missed a possibility to differentiate himself from his predecessor on immigration.
As a substitute, he doubled down on the Senate’s failed border invoice & parroted dehumanizing Republican rhetoric about immigrants.
We urge the President to do higher.
— Nationwide Immigration Legislation Middle (@NILC) March 8, 2024
The Nationwide Immigration Legislation Middle additionally stated Biden “missed an opportunity to distinguish himself” from Trump on immigration.
“Instead, he doubled down on the Senate’s failed border bill & parroted dehumanizing Republican rhetoric about immigrants,” the group stated on social media, referring to the State of the Union. “We urge the President to do better.”