The Republicans never expected this.

Joe Biden, the president of the United States, said her name.

“Laken Riley.”

Before Biden began to speak, the border security topic was sure to be one of the most contentious moments of the State of the Union Address.

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Biden was confronted by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as he entered the House chamber. She was wearing a MAGA hat in red and a shirt with the same message. A button was also pressed on his hand.

It said “Say Her Name,” a phrase that evoked the language used after George Floyd’s death and the deaths of others by police.

Laken Riley’s death, a Georgia nursing student, has become the rallying cry of Republicans. They say that the Biden administration handled the border between the U.S. and Mexico in the face of a record number of immigrants. A Venezuelan immigrant who illegally entered the U.S. has been charged with murder.

Biden began talking about border security midway through his speech. He called for Congress to pass legislation that would secure the border, and modernize outdated immigration laws in the United States. Biden praised the bipartisan effort, which failed when Donald Trump, the likely Republican candidate for president, objected.

Greene interjected, “Say her name!”

The Georgia congresswoman yelled and pointed a finger at Biden.

Biden then did exactly that.

He said, “Laken Riley” as he held up the white button.

Biden mentioned her passing briefly and made reference to the trauma of his family — in 1972, his first wife and daughter died after an auto accident. Beau, his son, died in 2015 from brain cancer.

Then he called on Congress to come together and pass a compromise border security bill.

Biden said, “Get this bill passed!”

He called for Trump to give up his opposition to any border agreement.

He said, “We can achieve it together.”

As immigration has become a major issue in the upcoming presidential election, Republicans have used nearly all of their tools at their disposal – including impeaching Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas – to criticize how the president handled the border.

The House had earlier voted on the “Laken Riley Act” which would have required the Department of Homeland Security detain undocumented migrants accused of theft.

Jose Ibarra was arrested by authorities on charges of murder and assault. He is a Venezuelan who had entered the U.S. without permission and stayed to pursue his immigration case. He has yet to enter a plea.

Trump used Riley’s passing to criticize Biden’s handling the border, and told the Crown at an event in this month that he would never mention her name.

Biden also used some of Trump’s language on the border. On Thursday night, Biden called the man accused of murdering Riley “illegal”.

This was disappointing for Rep. Pramila Jajapal, D. Washington, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She told the AP that she wished he had not engaged with Marjorie Taylor Greene, and avoided using the word illegal.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif), the speaker emeritus of Congress, commented on CNN that “He should have said undocumented” but it was not a major issue.

Greene had distributed the buttons earlier that day. Biden looked at the gallery, where many guests were sitting. Riley’s parents weren’t there.

Rep. Mike Collins (a Georgia Republican) said that Riley’s parents were invited to the State of the Union Address, but “chosen” to stay at home to grieve the death of their daughter.