Tipsheet

Biden Had Even More Terrible Things to Say on Immigration After He Sort of Said Laken Riley's Name

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  March 08, 2024 7:30 AM

As Matt covered last night, President Joe Biden said Laken Riley's name, finally. He only sort of said it, though, given he actually said "Lincoln Riley," which has been trending. It was also only after he was heckled by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) into finally addressing her name and the fact that she was murdered. An illegal immigrant who had been arrested for other crimes before, Jose Antonio Ibarra, has been charged with her murder. 

Upon addressing Greene's insistence to bring up Riley, Biden reached for a pin. Although he got the young woman's name wrong, he acknowledged that she was "an innocent young woman who was killed, by an illegal, that's right!"

Given the righteous indignation in the president's voice, you'd never know that it was his open border policies or the Democratic Party's embrace of sanctuary cities and the failure of informing the federal government about Ibarra's arrests that were to blame for Riley's death. 

"But how many of thousands of people being killed by illegals," Biden then seemed to say, though it's possible he meant to say "legals," as if trying to bring up the irrelevant point of Americans being killed by other citizens. He went for another oft-used tactic of his, which is to bring his own deceased son into the conversation. "To her parents I say my heart goes out to you, having lost children myself," claiming "I understand."

Riley's parents had been invited to the State of the Union address by Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), who represents the district where she was murdered, though they decided to not attend and instead grieved at home. 

Recommended

Georgia Conducted a Hand Count Audit of Its Election Results. Guess What it Found? Guy Benson
Trump Drops a Flurry of Nominees to Head FDA, OMB, CDC, and HUD Matt Vespa

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, as part of this administration's terrible response to Riley's murder, has been saying that Biden had not contacted Riley's family. 

As was the theme of pretty much Biden's entire State of the Union address, he continued to strike an angry and divisive tone, including as he had even still more to say on immigration. Riley's name was not mentioned once in the prepared remarks, according to the official White House transcript. Sure enough, Jean-Pierre had previewed on Tuesday that she didn't have anything to say about Biden mentioning her name, and had actually been on to something. 

The president still referenced immigrants in his speech, but in a way to paint former and potentially future President Donald Trump as the bad guy here:

In November, my team began serious negotiations with a bipartisan group of Senators. 

The result was a bipartisan bill with the toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen  

in this country. 

That bipartisan deal would hire 1,500 more border security agents and officers.  

100 more immigration judges to help tackle a backload of 2 million cases. 

4,300 more asylum officers and new policies so they can resolve cases in 6 months instead of 6 years. 

100 more high-tech drug detection machines to significantly increase the ability to screen and stop vehicles from smuggling fentanyl into America. 

This bill would save lives and bring order to the border. 

It would also give me as President new emergency authority to temporarily shut down the border  when the number of migrants at the border is overwhelming.  

The Border Patrol Union endorsed the bill. 

The Chamber of Commerce endorsed the bill. 

I believe that given the opportunity a majority of the House and Senate would endorse it as well. 

But unfortunately, politics have derailed it so far. 

I’m told my predecessor called Republicans in Congress and demanded they block the bill. He feels it would be a political win for me and a political loser for him. 

It’s not about him or me.  

It’d be a winner for America! 

My Republican friends you owe it to the American people to get this bill done.   

We need to act. 

And if my predecessor is watching instead of playing politics and pressuring members of Congress to block this bill, join me in telling Congress to pass it! 

We can do it together. But here’s what I will not do. 

I will not demonize immigrants saying they “poison the blood of our country” as he said in his own words. 

I will not separate families. 

I will not ban people from America because of their faith. 

Unlike my predecessor, on my first day in office I introduced a comprehensive plan to fix our immigration system, secure the border, and provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and so much more. 

Because unlike my predecessor, I know who we are as Americans. 

We are the only nation in the world with a heart and soul that draws from old and new. 

Home to Native Americans whose ancestors have been here for thousands of years. Home to people from every place on Earth. 

Some came freely. 

Some chained by force. 

Some when famine struck, like my ancestral family in Ireland. 

Some to flee persecution. 

Some to chase dreams that are impossible anywhere but here in America. 

That’s America, where we all come from somewhere, but we are all Americans. 

We can fight about the border, or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it. 

Send me the border bill now!

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had his seat behind the president for the entire speech, with all eyes on him and his reactions. Particularly memorable was the eye roll and shaking of his head that he did throughout, including when the president called for Congress to send a border bill his way to sign. 

Johnson has been particularly firm in calling Biden out for his lies about the southern border and his supposed lack of authority to fix this crisis without Congress passing legislation such as the disastrous border bill, which Johnson has also vocally opposed. Republican members in both chambers have been pretty much unified in reminding that it's the Biden administration that owns this crisis.

It's also worth reminding that the House already passed a strong border security bill last May, which would be the Secure the Border Act.