Brandon Gill

Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, told Newsmax on Tuesday that Americans are sick of Democrats weaponizing the immigration system against them while working to undermine President Donald Trump's enforcement agenda.

Appearing on "Ed Henry: The Big Take," Gill said Democrats have gone from backing "defund the police" rhetoric to embracing what he called an open-borders ideology that puts illegal immigrants ahead of American citizens.

"The first thing that we're seeing is Democrats fighting to defund ICE and CBP Border Patrol," he said. "We're fighting right now to ensure that we can refund and make sure that the people who are keeping our communities safe are actually getting paid and are doing it in a way that keeps them safe."

Gill, who led a hearing on abuses of U.S. immigration policy, said Democrats are also exploiting a legal designation that is meant to provide limited, short-term relief from deportation.

"What you also see is Democrats who are pursuing things like Temporary Protective Status, which is a legal status meant to be temporary, to give a temporary reprieve for specific reasons from deportation," he said. "They're using [it] to weaponize as a type of de facto amnesty."

According to the congressman, Democrats have not stopped there.

"They've weaponized our legal system to go after really any type of immigration enforcement that the Trump administration has pursued," he said. "I think the American people are sick of it."

Asked whether immigration could hurt Democrats in the midterms, Gill said it will be a major factor because voters see the contrast between the two parties.

"Democrats went all in on defund the police," he said. "And then they realized once they went all in on that, they've also got to go all in on defunding Border Patrol and have basically embraced an open borders ideology."

Gill said Republicans are offering a different message.

"We want to put the American people first," he said. "We want to put the American citizen first and that means deporting criminal, illegal aliens."

Gill also said that means removing illegal immigrants who are "clogging up our schools and our hospitals," using welfare benefits, draining public resources and making communities less safe.

The Texas Republican also blasted Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison over massive social services fraud scandals, praising the Trump administration for pursuing possible criminal accountability.

Gill said a House Oversight Committee investigation into Minnesota Medicaid fraud found Walz and Ellison knew about the problem "for years."

"What they did is they made sort of a Faustian bargain with the Somali community there," he said. "They said, 'You can defraud our taxpayers, and we're going to look the other way. And in exchange, we expect you to vote Democrat.’"

Calling the alleged arrangement "grotesque," Gill said he was glad to see officials "actually facing real justice."

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