Laken Riley's parents Jason Riley (C) and Allyson Philips attend Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign rally at the Forum River Center March 09, 2024 in Rome, Georgia. (Photo by CHIP SOMODEVILLA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)
Washington: The top US congressional Republican on Sunday demanded an apology from Joe Biden over the murder of an American student for which an undocumented migrant was arrested -- a case helping to put immigration squarely at the center of the 2024 presidential campaign.
The president "is cowering to his base and showing deference to a man who deserves none," House speaker Mike Johnson said on X, the former Twitter. He said the alleged killer "is an illegal immigrant who brutally murdered Laken Riley."
Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was attacked late last month while on a morning run in a wooded area at the University of Georgia in Athens.
A Venezuelan migrant has been charged with murder and kidnapping. He had been stopped by police previously at least three times but was released each time.
Republicans led by former president Donald Trump insist that Riley's murder is a direct result of lax border enforcement by Biden.
One fervent Trump supporter, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, surprised Biden as he made his way to the front of the House chamber to deliver his State of the Union message Thursday, pressing a button with Riley's name on it into his hand and telling him, "Say her name."
'Say her name'
Biden did not back down. Holding the button up, he spoke Riley's name -- mispronouncing it -- and called her "an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal."
He made the comment while urging Republicans to join Democrats in backing legislation to ease the migration crisis.
But his use of the word "illegal" drew a sharp backlash from liberal commentators and migrant advocates who say Biden should have used the more politically correct term "undocumented."
Democratic congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas said on X that "there was a lot of good in President Biden's speech... but his rhetoric about immigrants was incendiary and wrong."
On Saturday, Biden retreated, telling an MSNBC interviewer he regretted his word choice. "I shouldn't have used 'illegal,'" he said. "It's 'undocumented.'"
In sharp contrast to Trump, Biden said he would never "demonize" immigrants.
