Overwhelming Majority of Hispanics Approve of Biden’s Description of Laken Riley’s Alleged Killer as an ‘Illegal,’ New Poll Finds

An overwhelming majority of American Hispanics say that it was not problematic for President Joe Biden to refer to the illegal immigrant accused of killing and disfiguring Georgia nursing student Laken Riley as an “illegal,” according to new Harvard-Harris Poll results.

Biden received flak from far-left Democrats after using the allegedly troublesome term to describe Riley’s killer during his State of the Union address in early March, leading him to apologize.

But almost three-quarters of Hispanic poll respondents said the term “illegal” was appropriate.

A majority of Hispanics also agree that the illegal-immigration crisis at the southern border is getting worse, that the Biden administration should make it harder to enter the country illegally, and that Riley’s killing shows the need for tougher border policies, the poll found.

In an exchange with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene during his State of the Union address, Biden referred to Jose Antonio Ibarra, the Venezuelan migrant charged in Riley’s killing, as an “illegal,” drawing condemnation from the far-left wing of his party. Biden tried to walk it back, telling MSNBC that “I shouldn’t have used ‘illegal’; it’s ‘undocumented.’”

But Hispanic Americans — the very Americans who are supposed to be most offended by the term — apparently are not, according to the poll.

The poll found that 63 percent of Hispanics agreed that it is appropriate to refer to people who enter the country without permission as “illegal immigrants,” slightly less than the 67 percent of blacks and 77 percent of whites who similarly agreed. Regarding Biden’s use of the term during his State of the Union address, 74 percent of Hispanics said it was an appropriate term for the immigrant accused of killing Riley, matching the percent of blacks who said the same, and less than the 81 percent of whites who agreed.

“President Biden’s apology for identifying Laken Riley’s murderer as an illegal immigrant is perhaps the clearest example to date of the Democrats’ widening gap with Hispanic voters,” Giancarlo Sopo, a media strategist who led Donald Trump’s Hispanic advertising in 2020, told National Review. “As this poll clearly shows, not only are most Latinos not offended by the term, they deemed its use perfectly appropriate.”

Sopo said Biden’s apology shows the divide between his Latino advisors, who are “deeply entrenched D.C. insiders,” and the real, working-class Hispanics they claim to represent.

“These are the same people who pushed the Biden campaign to embrace ‘Latinx,’” Sopo said of the non-binary version of Latino that few Latinos use or accept. Sopo noted that the progressive Latino Victory Fund endorsed Biden at the time of his apology.

Sopo said that blue-collar Hispanics “are far more concerned with crime in their communities than adhering to political correctness. Plainly stated, they have neither the inclination nor the luxury to be offended by mere words.”

Biden’s attempt to walk back his use of the term “illegal” was “tone deaf,” Texas Representative Monica De La Cruz tweeted at the time. “Mr. President, most Hispanics do not give a damn that you called the man who brutally murdered Laken Riley an ‘illegal,’” she wrote.

A majority of poll respondents across demographic groups agreed that it was fair to criticize Biden for seemingly apologizing to the man accused of killing Riley instead of sympathizing with Riley. Fifty-six percent of Hispanics agreed that was fair criticism, compared to 62 percent of whites and 58 percent of blacks.

The poll also found widespread support among respondents for stronger border policies.

Sixty-three percent of Hispanics agreed that the immigration problem at the border is getting worse, compared to 60 percent of whites and 42 percent of blacks. Seventy-one percent of Hispanics agreed that the Biden administration should make it “tougher” to get into the country illegally, compared to 77 percent of whites and 54 percent of blacks.

And 69 percent of Hispanics agreed that Riley’s killing shows that the country needs stricter immigration policies, compared to 72 percent of whites and 64 percent of blacks. A minority of respondents said the killing has been “exploited by politicians.”

The poll found that immigration and inflation topped voter concerns heading into the 2024 election. During his State of the Union address, Biden said that he was “ready to fix” the southern border, and blamed Trump and congressional Republicans for derailing a bipartisan border-security bill that he said would have allowed him to do so.

He did not acknowledge the blame that he and his administration bear for the historic surge of illegal border crossings that began shortly after his inauguration in 2021.

During his address, Biden botched Riley’s name, calling her “Lincoln” instead of “Laken.”

Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was abducted and killed while she was jogging at the University of Georgia in late February. Ibarra, who had previously been arrested in New York City for acting in a manner to injure a child, is facing numerous murder and assault charges connected to Riley’s killing.

Ibarra is accused of brutally beating Riley, disfiguring her body, and bringing her body to a secluded area. It does not appear that Riley and Ibarra knew one another.