Hillary Clinton campaigning in Colorado Tuesday

Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Tuesday her use of the term “illegal immigrants” was a “poor choice of words” and she pledged not to use it anymore, responding to criticism from immigration activists.

The presidential candidate of the center-left Democratic Party said the US government should “make vetting as strong and smart and careful as it can be”, but she cautioned against how opposition to admitting refugees who are Muslim might be received.

During a stop in New Hampshire earlier this month, the Democratic presidential candidate referred to immigrants that way while discussing her support for a barrier along the Mexican border as a NY senator. A Clinton campaign official said family members of those who perished in both of those massacres, as well as a woman whose sister was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting attended the meeting. They have names, and hopes and dreams that deserve to be respected”, Clinton wrote, adding, “I’ve talked about undocumented immigrants hundreds of times and fought for years for comprehensive immigration reform. The National Association of Hispanic Journalists has for years counseled news organizations to strike the term from style guides, pointing out that “illegal immigrant” inaccurately describes a person, rather than an action, as “illegal”, and contending that the phrase stigmatizes immigrants and Latinos more generally.

“I have heard all this loose inflammatory talk about refugees”, she told the Colorado audience.

The support for the fence is galling enough to immigrant-rights advocates, but her use of the term “illegal immigrants” landed her in more hot water.

DREAMers take their name from the acronym for legislation that lays out a process toward citizenship for immigrant children who were brought into the country illegally and grew up in the United States. “And I will continue to do so”, Clinton said Tuesday. I think you’re not going to be able to get people to come out of the shadows if you say if they come out of the shadows then you’re going to deport them.

Perhaps realizing the error of her ways, on Tuesday, the former secretary of state expressed regret for her remarks. “He’s been trafficking in prejudice and paranoia and it’s bad for our politics and it’s bad for our country”.

She has proposed expanding President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, implement reforms to immigration laws and open a pathway to citizenship for most illegal immigrants.

The Clinton campaign also points to her record, saying it shows a history of working to regulate the industry.

But when asked about the fracas in a Telemundo Facebook chat, Clinton apologized.