Centrist House Democrats are unloading on Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) for her plan to give a response to President Biden’s State of the Union address tomorrow.

• “It’s like keying your own car and slashing your own tires,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) told Axios.

Why it matters: The lawmaker's frustration with a charter member of "The Squad" reveals a deep tactical division within the Democratic Party over midterm strategy: appeal to the party’s base, or try to capture swing voters?

• The centrists think the night should belong to the president — and his priorities.
• Tlaib wants to make sure Republicans, and centrist Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), get some blame for holding up Biden's Build Back Better agenda.
• The speech is designed to deliver a progressive vision for America, according to a person familiar with Tlaib's prepared remarks.  
• "Despite some sensational coverage, it’s simple: I’m giving a speech about supporting President Biden and his Build Back Better agenda for the people," she tweeted.

The divide between progressives and centrists is likely to persist throughout the year, as both sides are convinced their approach is the best way to retain the majority.

• Gottheimer told Axios the State of the Union address is no place for it to play out: “It’s massively counterproductive.”
• Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Texas) also said: “In times of crisis, we should all stand by our president."

Keep reading.

👓 Go deeper: Axios chief economic correspondent Neil Irwin previewed the economics section of the State of the Union address. Read here.

The U.S. deported its first Afghan evacuee back to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan earlier this month due to a criminal record discovered after their arrival, Axios' Stef Kight has learned.

Why it matters: Out of the tens of thousands of evacuated Afghans brought to the United States, only a small handful remain in government custody because of criminal records or other concerns. Now, a process has been established for returning Afghans to their home country, if necessary.

The details: The Afghan in question was returned on Feb. 13 in coordination with officials in Doha, Qatar, according to an internal government document obtained by Axios.

• The details of the crime are unclear, although Axios was told by an administration official there was no connection to terrorist networks or national security concerns.
• The official said that this was an example of the vetting system working.
• All Afghans are screened and vetted through multiple U.S. agencies before their arrival.
• As of September, just 44 out of tens of thousands of evacuees were flagged through those processes as potential national security risks, the Washington Post reported at the time.

What they're saying: The vetting process is ongoing. "If individuals engage in criminal activity or additional information becomes available that raises a concern, the U.S. government takes action, which can include prosecution, revocation of parole and placement into removal proceedings,” a DHS spokesperson told Axios in a statement.

Keep reading.

More than half a million Ukrainians have fled to neighboring countries as Russia continues its invasion of their homeland, according to UN statistics released today.

Why it matters: There were 84 million forcibly displaced people around the world as of mid-2021, according to UN data. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as well as last year's fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, will only add to the global population without a home, Stef also writes.

• "Even before the situations in Afghanistan and Ukraine, the numbers of people forced to flee globally had been rising to new highs for several years," Matthew Saltmarsh, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a statement to Axios.
• "[S]adly, there is no sign that the trend is ending,"

By the numbers: Roughly 520,000 Ukrainians have now fled to neighboring countries, according to UN figures as of this afternoon.

• Most (281,000) have headed to Poland, while Hungary has received 94,000.
• At least 160,000 people have also been internally displaced inside Ukraine, Martin Griffiths, UN emergency relief coordinator, said today.

The big picture: With so many global crises, refugee and humanitarian groups "are all stretched very thinly right now," Bob Kitchen, International Rescue Committee's director of emergency preparedness and response, told Axios.

• Much of the region's refugee infrastructure has been in Ukraine rather than surrounding countries, complicating humanitarian organizations' efforts to prepare. Many refugee programs in Ukraine have been forced to shut down.
• Some national leaders now welcoming Ukrainians only recently refused — or reluctantly offered refuge — to people fleeing from the Middle East and Africa, as NPR reported.

Go deeper: The latest on the Russia-Ukraine crisis

🐘 Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell condemned Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) for speaking at a white nationalist conference, telling Axios' Andrew Solender in a statement, "There’s no place in the Republican Party for white supremacists or antisemitism.”

• House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News he'll meet with Taylor Greene this week. "This is unacceptable," he said.

☀️ Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), the chair of the House Ethics Committee, is the 31st House Democrat to announce plans not to run for re-election, compounding Democrats' concerns about keeping the House majority in this year's midterm elections.

• Rep. Fred Keller (R-Pa.) also announced he will retire after being drawn into a district with Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.).

⚖️ Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the president's nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, will meet Wednesday with McConnell and Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the two leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to Politico.

• Jackson has been racking up endorsements from prominent Republican-appointed former judges, including Michael Luttig and Thomas Griffith, whose support for Jackson was first reported by Axios' Sophia Cai.

📊 A new poll from Quinnipiac University has Americans favoring Jackson's confirmation by a more than 2-to-1 ratio, with 48% of respondents saying Jackson should be confirmed and 22% saying she should not.

• Biden has less to celebrate when it comes to his response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine: 57% say the actions he has taken to punish Russia are not tough enough, including 44% of Democrats.

🗣️ Biden plans to try to remedy that in his State of the Union address tomorrow, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki. She told reporters he'll "lay out the efforts ... he has taken, he has led on, to rally the world to stand up for democracy and against Russian aggression."

• "I think people can expect to hear him position that as the importance of the United States as a leader in the world," she added.

President Biden reached out to Cateo Hilton, a student and Junior Mentor of the Life Pieces to Masterpieces program, during a White House event closing out Black History Month.

• An audience member also snapped a photo of Vice President Kamala Harris, the nation's first Black female vice president.