A strong majority of Americans and, in important election news, a clear majority of political independents see no problem with using the terms “illegal immigrant” or “illegal alien” to describe the millions of foreigners who have raced across the southern border since Joe Biden became president.
On Tuesday, the right-leaning pollster Rasmussen Reports released results of a recent survey of 1,149 likely voters that included the following question: “Which is the best way to describe foreigners who cross the U.S. border in violation of our immigration laws: Illegal alien, illegal immigrant, asylum seeker, or undocumented migrant?”
In response, 35% said “illegal alien” was the best way to characterize them, while another 27% agreed with “illegal immigrant.”
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Overall, that was 62% of respondents.
On the other hand, just 20% liked “undocumented migrant,” while only 12% preferred “asylum seeker.”
When broken down by political persuasion, either “illegal alien” or “illegal immigrant” was favored by 80% of Republicans and 60% of voters who were not members of either major party. They were joined by 44% of Democrats.
The terminology became an issue after President Joe Biden apologized for calling the accused murderer of 22-year-old Georgia nursing student Laken Riley an “illegal.”
Biden used “illegal” to describe the suspect, Jose Antonio Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who was allowed to remain in the country despite multiple encounters with law enforcement during the March 7 State of the Union address.
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In a March 9 interview with MSNBC, reporter Jonathan Capehart asked Biden about his wording.
“An undocumented person. And I shouldn’t have used ‘illegal.’ It’s ‘undocumented,’” Biden said.
“So you regret using that word?” Capehart then asked.
Biden replied, “Yes.”
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