Dehumanizing, inaccurate and outdated: why did Biden say ‘illegals’ in his State of the Union address?

Joe Biden’s seemingly off-the-cuff use of “illegal” to describe people who are undocumented during his State of the Union address drew disappointed reaction from experts who have long argued the term is inaccurate and outdated.

Responding to heckling from conservative congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who demanded Biden mention the name of Laken Riley – a Georgia nursing student who was allegedly killed by a person who is undocumented – Biden held up a button of Riley’s face and said she was an “innocent, young woman who was killed by an illegal”.

He added: “But how many thousands of people being killed by legals? To the parents, I say, my heart goes out to you, having lost children myself. I understand.”

Democrats and immigrant rights organizations said Biden’s use of “illegal” as dehumanizing. The Illinois congresswoman Delia Ramirez said she was “disappointed” in Biden’s use of what she called “dehumanizing right wing rhetoric” to describe immigrants. “No human being is illegal,” Ramirez said. Another Illinois representative, Chuy García, added: “As a proud immigrant, I’m extremely disappointed to hear President Biden use the world “illegal”.

The National Immigrant Justice Center called the term “words [from] anti-immigrant extremists”, adding: “Manipulating a personal tragedy for political gain in this way is dangerous. Conflating immigration status with criminality is racist and dehumanizing.”

Immigration advocates have long argued that the term “illegals” is an inaccurate term, as entering the US without documents is not a criminal offense. It is also a racially charged term that can promote violence and discrimination, according to the Drop the I-Word campaign, which advocates for media organizations not to use it