The remarks, which emerged with the full text of the speech released by the White House today, were widely covered in the US media and caused controversy.
Biden, who hosted Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio at the White House just two weeks ago, said in his speech yesterday, "One of the reasons our economy is growing is because of people like you and people like you because we (the United States) welcome immigrants. Think about it, why is China stalling so much economically? Why is Japan having problems? Why Russia? Why India? Because they are xenophobic, they do not want immigrants."
Asked to comment on the issue, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said the President's remarks were clear and there was no need for further comment.
"The President was making a comment about who we are as a nation, we are a nation of immigrants, it's in our DNA," Jean-Pierre said.
