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(ASSOCIATED PRESS) President Joe Biden faced disappointment and anger from some allies Friday for calling the suspect in the killing of a Georgia nursing student an “illegal” during his State of the Union speech. Other Democrats backed him as better on immigration issues than former President Donald Trump, his likely rival in November’s election.

The moment occurred during an exchange in which Biden pressed Republicans to pass a bipartisan border security deal that fell apart after Trump opposed it. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a stalwart Trump ally, then shouted at the president to say the name of Laken Riley, the Georgia woman killed last month, adding she was killed “by an illegal.”

“By an illegal, that’s right,” Biden responded immediately, before appearing to ask how many people are being killed by “legals.”

Referring to people who arrived or are living in the U.S. illegally as “illegals” was once common but is far less so today, particularly among Democrats who more fully embraced immigrant rights’ issues during Trump’s presidency.