Six in 10 voters say it is appropriate to use 'illegals' to describe border crossers and more than half say Biden was wrong to backtrack after using it in the State of the Union address

President Joe Biden drew the anger of the left when he used the term 'illegal'  during his State of the Union address, but he shouldn't worry too much, at least according to the latest J.L. Partners/DailyMail.com 2024 poll.

Six in ten Americans say its perfectly fine to use the term to describe people who entered the U.S. illegally. 

But Biden received a salvo of criticism after using the term while mentioning Laken Riley, a college student who was murdered in Georgia, saying she was 'an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal.'

Critics say the use of the phrase 'illegals' is dehumanizing to the migrants that enter the country illegally. 

The president later backtracked, and told an MSNBC host shortly after his speech, 'I shouldn’t have used ‘illegal...it’s 'undocumented.''

However, the poll results reveal most Americans think the phrase is fine and that Biden should not have later backtracked. 

Joe Biden said Laken Riley was 'an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal' during his Sate of the Union speech. He later caught flack for using the term Democrats say is dehumanizing

After the State of the Union ended many Congressional Democrats took issue with Biden using the term, some saying the president was wrong for using the term. 

The J.L Partners/DailyMail.com 2024 survey of 1,000 likely voters online found that 60 percent think the term is appropriate, while just 30 percent say it is inappropriate. 

The remaining 10 percent responded 'Don't know.'

'Biden is best when he speaks off the cuff. Indeed, one of the reasons he won in 2020 was because he was seen as more authentic than the robotic, politician-like Hillary Clinton,' James Johnson, cofounder of J.L. Partners said of the poll results. 

'When he showed this side at the State of the Union, decrying the 'illegal' that murdered a young women, voters were much in agreement with him.'

'This poll finding not only shows that Biden should not have backtracked, but the vast disconnect between much of the Democrat/liberal establishment and the median voter.'

The unscripted moment prompted many hispanic lawmakers to correct the president, some saying the commander-in-chief was wrong for uttering it. 

'There was a lot of good in President Biden’s speech tonight, but his rhetoric about immigrants was incendiary and wrong,' Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, wrote on X following Biden's address. 

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, called Biden's use of the term 'deeply disappointing.'

He even called his use of the phrase a 'type of dangerous rhetoric,' according to NBC News. 

'We can not tout a strong economy and nation while at the same time vilifying immigrants who contribute so much to the strength of both,' Padilla said. 

President Joe Biden takes a selfie with Rep. Veronica Escobar, a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, after delivering his State of the Union and mentioning the term 'illegal'

The survey also found that more than half of Americans say Biden should have not backtracked on using the term 'illegal' with 54 percent of respondents saying he shouldn't have flipped. 

Conversely, 30 percent said he was correct for backtracking and 15 percent said they don't know. 

Respondents' answers on the appropriateness of 'illegals' and Biden's use of the phrase delineated mainly on party lines. 

Almost half of Democrats - 48 percent - said the phrase was inappropriate while an overwhelming 81 percent of Republicans said it was appropriate. 

Notably, most Independents think 'illegals' is a fine phrase to use, with 62 percent of them responding it was appropriate. Just 26 percent of them said it was inappropriate. 

And the trend continued for Biden's backtracking. 

A majority of Independents - 61 percent - and Republicans - 72 percent - said Biden should not have backtracked.

Democrats, by a much smaller margin, said Biden was right to walk-back his use of the phrase. Just 51 percent of Democrats said he should have backtracked, while 30 percent of Democrats think he should not have.