Like many immigrants and activists, I was stunned on Thursday night, March 7, to hear the term “an illegal” coming out of the mouth of President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address.
Heckled by Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to say the name of Laken Riley, who was allegedly murdered by a Venezuelan immigrant last month in Georgia, Biden picked up a button with Riley’s name on it that lawmakers had been given and made reference to her, although he misstated her first name.
“Lincoln Riley [sic],” he said. “An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal, that’s right.”
For a second, I thought my ears were deceiving me, but then came the tweets. “Let me be clear: No human being is illegal,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“As a proud immigrant, I’m extremely disappointed to hear President Biden use the word ‘illegal,’” Rep. Chuy Garcia, D-Ill., added.
The use of the term by Biden came even though his own Department of Homeland Security had told staff back in 2021 to stop using terms like “illegal alien.” The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will also often refer to those “unlawfully present” in the country.
After being slammed about it, Biden told Jonathan Capehart in an interview that he regretted using the word.
“I shouldn’t have used ‘illegal.’ It’s undocumented,” he stated.
But what caused him to go to that term in the first place? Was it to appease Taylor Greene and the right-wing loonies? Or was it the horror of the crime? Let’s revisit what exactly occurred weeks ago in Georgia that has Taylor Greene and the right-wingers so wound up again.
Here are the facts.
1: The “illegal” is actually Jose Antonio Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan immigrant, who is accused of killing Laken Riley, a 22-year-old white nursing student. Accused but not convicted!
2: Campus police found Riley dead in a wooded area behind a lake near the University of Georgia’s intramural fields on February 22. She had apparently been out for a run and was then reported missing by a friend.
3: On February 23, Ibarra was arrested in the killing and charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, obstructing an emergency call, and concealing the death of another. He and his brothers—Diego, 29, and Argenis, 24—were arrested that day during the search for Riley’s killer, with Diego initially stopped due to his resemblance to the suspect.
4: According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Ibarra and his wife entered the United States “illegally” near El Paso, Texas, in September 2022. After being arrested and released, his wife told the New York Post they were put on a bus and sent to New York.
At that time, immigration attorney Pamela Peynado said Venezuelans had special protective status in the U.S. under temporary protected status (TPS), approved by both the Trump and Biden administrations. But U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Ibarra was first arrested in September 2022 “after unlawfully entering the United States near El Paso, Texas.” He is being held at the Athens-Clarke County Jail and has chosen not to seek bond. His brothers are not suspected of involvement in Riley’s murder.
5: Jose’s brothers have now been arrested for entering the U.S. illegally. Diego had allegedly been employed by the University of Georgia food services, according to court documents, which may explain why Jose was near the university.
Jose has become the red meat the right needs to trump up its base and push their false narrative that immigrants are “dangerous criminals” who have been let into the country to “poison the blood” and “kill” real Americans, aka white Americans. Screw “innocent until proven guilty.” Once you are “an illegal,” it is simply “guilty” by default.
Felicia J. Persaud is the publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, a daily news outlet focusing on Black immigrant issues.