Texas Republican Rep. Brandon Gill used a high-profile appearance before Jewish conservatives to deliver a blistering critique of Rep. Ilhan Omar, mass immigration, and what he described as the growing Islamization of American communities, arguing that the United States cannot hope to defeat antisemitism while continuing to welcome people who reject its values.
Speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition's Leadership Summit, Gill, a freshman lawmaker from North Texas, framed immigration as an existential issue for the nations cultural and constitutional identity, especially in light of rising antisemitism and open support for Hamas on American streets. According to The Post Millennial, he cast the current immigration regimeboth legal and illegalas a direct threat to national cohesion, insisting that the country is importing ideologies fundamentally at odds with Western civilization and the American founding.
Gill opened his remarks with a pointed anecdote about Omar, the Minnesota Democrat and frequent critic of Israel, recalling a tense exchange that followed his public suggestion that she should be deported. "One of the people that I got to meet, not long after getting elected, was somebody by the name of fellow Congresswoman Ilhan Omar," Gill told the crowd, prompting loud boos at the mention of her name.
He said the confrontation occurred during late-night votes in the House Budget Committee, when Omar approached him in anger over his social media comments. "She was really angry at me," Gill said. "And she was angry because I might have tweeted that America would be better off if she were deported."
The audience responded with applause as Gill described Omar allegedly getting in his face and unleashing a stream of profanity. "She's really angry, and it's unbelievably vulgar. I mean, like, cursing like a sailor," Gill recalled, adding that he chose not to respond while she continued.
"And the whole time, I'm just standing there, and all I could think of was, man, do you kiss your brother with that mouth?" he quipped, a punchline that drew laughter and more applause from the audience. With that, Gill pivoted from personal confrontation to policy, arguing that his own familyhis wife and two young childrenkeeps him focused on the stakes of the immigration debate for future generations.
"Our job as conservatives is to conserve our country so that our children and our grandchildren get to inherit the same nation and get to enjoy the same opportunities and get to experience the same culture that we got to enjoy," Gill said, underscoring a core conservative conviction that the American experiment must be preserved, not transformed. He went on to argue that immigration may be "the most important issue that we deal with today" because it touches virtually every dimension of American life, from economic stability to cultural continuity.
"American immigration policy is what will determine whether the America as we see it today will even exist 50 years from now," Gill said. "And I'm not just referring to illegal immigration, I'm also referring to legal immigration."
From there, Gill drew a direct line between immigration policy and the surge of antisemitic rhetoric and pro-Hamas activism seen in recent years on college campuses and in major cities. "Ask yourself, why are we seeing in the past few years an increase in antisemitism? Why are we seeing an increase in pro-Hamas sentiment in the United States?" Gill asked. "Well, it's in part because of our immigration policy, because we've imported these ideas."
To illustrate his point, Gill cited his questioning of a Democratic witness during a House Oversight Committee hearing into the Minnesota-Somali fraud scandal, a case that has already raised serious concerns about abuse of federal welfare programs. During that hearing, he said he asked the witness whether large-scale immigration from Somalia had made Minnesota stronger, and the witness replied that it had.
"I said, okay, that's interesting. What percentage of Somali immigrants in Minnesota are on welfare? He said, I don't know. I said, it's 81 percent," Gill told the audience, using the statistic to challenge the prevailing narrative that all immigration is an unqualified benefit. Gill pressed further: "What percentage of Somali immigrants in Minnesota are on welfare, even after being in the United States for 10 years or longer? He said, I don't know. I said, it's 78 percent."
"That is absolutely astounding," Gill said. "And now can you tell me with a straight face that that makes America stronger or more prosperous in any meaningful way? Obviously not."
"Importing people who hop on welfare or defraud the federal government makes America weaker and worse off in virtually every conceivable way," Gill added, arguing that a system designed to serve citizens has been turned into a global entitlement program. "And it doesn't matter if they came here legally or not."
"What else makes America weaker?" he continued. "Importing people who hate it."
Gill then turned explicitly to Islam and immigration, saying that voters in his North Texas district frequently approach him with concerns about what he called the "Islamization of Texas." "Mosques are popping up everywhere. Islam is entering our schools and it's transforming our communities," Gill said. "And let's be really, really clear about this. Islam is here because of America's immigration policy."
"Islam is not native to America. And it certainly did not come here on the Mayflower," Gill continued. "It came here because we imported it."
He argued that Islamic ideology is "fundamentally incompatible with our way of life and with our governing system," contrasting what he described as the American understanding of free speech, religious liberty, separation of church and state, and the dignity and role of women with norms in many Muslim-majority societies. "We always hear the left complain about Christian nationalism," Gill said. "I'd love to hear them speak up against Islamic nationalism in the United States."
"Why in the world would we allow people whose core principles are antithetical to our own to immigrate into the United States, whether legally or not?" Gill asked, challenging the bipartisan political class that has long embraced high levels of immigration. "Why would we import alien ideologies and belief systems that do not comport with our own governing constitutional structure? We shouldn't."
"Because doing so is not only idiotic, but it is suicidal," he added, warning that a nation that refuses to defend its cultural and constitutional foundations will eventually lose them. Gill acknowledged that such blunt talk would inevitably provoke accusations from the left and the media that he is "bigoted or racist or xenophobic," but he insisted that those labels have lost their power.
"Calling us racist does not work anymore. Because you know what? I don't care what you call me, I just want my children to grow up in a country that they actually recognize," Gill said, framing the debate as a choice between political correctness and national survival. He returned in closing to the link he sees between immigration, national identity, and the safety of Jewish Americans in particular.
"Our job as conservatives is to conserve our country. We cannot do that by importing welfare queens and we cannot do that by importing people who hate us," Gill said, arguing that a serious immigration policy must unapologetically prioritize the interests of American citizens. "If we want to conserve America, let's start with our immigration policy. Let's do it truthfully and boldlybecause we have a country to save."
"The only reason our immigration system exists is for the benefit of the American people," Gill said. "And we should ensure that it continues that way, and that we're not importing people that will tear our country apart."
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