Student's murder allegedly by a migrant fans U.S. political flames

The top U.S. 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.

- A badly taken apology -

But while that expression of regret may have placated some on the left, his opponents on the right said it confirmed their charge that he is soft on migrants.

"Biden should be apologizing for apologizing to this killer," Trump said during a rally Saturday in Georgia. "He was illegal and I say he was an illegal alien."

The former president, who has accused migrants of "poisoning the blood" of the country, said Riley would be alive today if Biden had not eased border enforcement.

Speaker Johnson seconded Trump's sentiment, saying Biden "should be apologizing to Laken's family."

Biden supports a reform package aimed at tightening border security -- a package negotiated at length by members of both parties but ultimately blocked by Republicans who say it contains little that Biden could not have done on his own.

Democrats say there was Republican support for the bill until Trump declared his opposition; they say he was loath to hand his rival a major political victory on a sensitive subject as they both campaign for president.

The bill would have restricted asylum claims, provided for the hiring of more border police, and allowed the president effectively to close the border if more than 5,000 migrants a day attempted to cross unlawfully in a week.

Border police registered a record 302,000 interceptions of migrants coming from Mexico in December, though the number dropped sharply to 176,000 in January, according to official data.