Biden torched for claiming ‘undocumented’ immigrants ‘built this country’ after saying same of middle class

President Biden received criticism online for claiming in a recent interview that “undocumented” immigrants built this country.

The statement came as he apologized for using the term “illegal” to describe Jose Ibarra, the Venezuelan national accused of killing Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley. The president drew backlash on social media for crediting illegal immigrants for having “built” the U.S. – something he had previously credited to the American middle class.

“In his SOTU speech he said unions and the middle class built this country, now he says ‘undocumented’ immigrants built the country. Any guess as to who he will say built the country the next time he’s speaking to an African-American audience?” journalist Jeff Gremillion wrote on X. 

Sitting down with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart for a wide-ranging interview that aired Saturday, Biden said he should not have used the term “illegal” for Ibarra, 26, who illegally crossed the border in Texas but was still released for parole into the U.S. before being charged with murdering Riley. 

Biden stressed to Capehart that he should have used the word “undocumented” – instead of “illegal” – when citing Riley’s accused murderer during an off-script moment at the State of the Union address last week.

BIDEN SAYS HE REGRETS USING ‘ILLEGAL’ TO DESCRIBE LAKEN RILEY MURDER SUSPECT DURING STATE OF THE UNION

“And I shouldn’t have used illegal, I should’ve… It’s undocumented,” Biden said. “And look, when I spoke about the difference between Trump and me, one of the things I talked about on the border was his – the way he talks about vermin, the way he talks about these people polluting the blood. I talked about what I’m not going to do, what I won’t do. I’m not going to treat any, any, any of these people with disrespect. Look, they built the country. The reason our economy is growing, we have to control the…