Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) painted President Joe Biden as a leader who supports immigrants while defending the president’s reference to “illegals” during his State of the Union speech.

Biden was addressing Congress Thursday night when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) interrupted and shouted out Laken Riley’s name, the college student in Georgia who was allegedly slain by an illegal immigrant. In response, the president went off script and responded, “Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal.” Schumer then appeared on The View Friday to do some damage control.

“The one thing that President Biden is getting some criticism from folks on both sides, really, is for calling undocumented immigrants ‘illegals’ last night,” host Sunny Hostin said. “Now that’s just a term that I don’t think the party has used for at least over 10 years. And people make mistakes, but do you think this will hurt him?”

“Look, he showed in his heart how he feels for immigrants. He showed that he knows immigrants contribute greatly to America. He talked about our long history with immigrants and even showed real empathy for the family that lost a loved one in Georgia. So I think that Joe Biden comes out really well on the immigration issue in this speech,” Schumer said.

Biden extended an invitation to Riley’s parents, but they refused. During the State of the Union address, the House Republican speaker’s balcony featured an empty chair in memory of her. 

“Democrats were on their back foot on immigration. Now we are on our front foot,” Schumer said about his party’s stance on immigration earlier in the episode. “We still have to answer some questions, but now we’re on our front foot, not our back foot.”

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Reps. Chuy Garcia (D-IL), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Delia Ramirez (D-IL), and Joaquin Castro (D-TX) all issued statements condemning the president’s use of the term.

At the moment, Schumer is facing calls to bring the House’s Secure the Border Act up for debate in the Senate after it passed the House last May. The legislation limits asylum eligibility, prevents the Department of Homeland Security from processing immigrants who crossed the border between ports of entry, and provides grants for law enforcement’s border security operations, among other things. While the bill has been read in the Senate, it has remained dormant for over 300 days.