Brandon Gill Immigration Checks & Balances Texas

Brandon Gill Chairs a Task Force on 'Defending Constitutional Rights.' A Colleague Told His Hearing He Fears Gill Will Try to Revoke His Citizenship.

Rep. Dave Min, a birthright citizen, used his time at a House Oversight hearing on Sept. 1 to say that if he says something Gill dislikes, 'maybe he'll try to revoke my citizenship.' Gill circulated a petition last year to deport a sitting member of Congress.

MAGA Report Cards · Sep 02, 2026

Brandon Gill, the Republican congressman from Texas, chairs the House Oversight Committee's Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses.

On Tuesday, September 1, 2026, a Democrat on that task force used his five minutes to explain, on the record, why he does not believe the chairman means it.

What Rep. Dave Min said

Min was questioning Steven A. Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies. He started with two questions about the Constitution, then turned to the man running the hearing:

"Well, the chair of this task force, Brandon Gill, tried to revoke the citizenship of one of our congressional colleagues last year, circulating a petition to try to pressure the Trump administration to deport Representative Ilhan Omar because he did not agree with some of her comments and her actions. I would just note that's the opposite of supporting and defending the Constitution.

Some might call it sedition. And this is all very deeply personal to me because I am myself a birthright citizen.

My parents were here in America on student visas when I was born. They had not become naturalized until after I was born.

And if Donald Trump and Brandon Gill had had their way, maybe my parents would have been denied their visas. Maybe they would have been deported. Maybe my citizenship would have been denied.

And maybe if I say something today or beyond that Brandon Gill doesn't like, he'll try to revoke my citizenship.

But thankfully, Brandon Gill does not get to decide who is a citizen, because that question is clearly laid out in the Constitution of the United States."

Min closed by noting that a task force "meant to, quote, defend constitutional rights is chaired by a person with no regard for the Constitution."

Gill's answer, from the chair: "Gentleman yields back. Don't worry, I won't try to revoke your citizenship, Mr. Min."

The petition Min is talking about is real

This is not an inflammatory characterization. It happened, and it is documented.

In February 2025, Gill's campaign sent out a fundraising email titled "Petition: Deport Ilhan Omar," asking supporters to sign a petition to have a sitting member of the U.S. House deported to Somalia.

The email said: "Friend, we should have never let Ilhan Omar into our country," and "America would be a much better place if she were to be sent back to Somalia." Gill posted the same thing publicly on X: "America would be a better place if @IlhanMN were deported back to Somalia."

Omar arrived in the United States as a refugee in 1995, during the Somali civil war. She has been an American citizen since 2000, when she was 17.

There is no lawful process by which the government deports a U.S. citizen for things she said. Gill raised money off proposing it anyway.

Omar's response at the time: "It is truly disgusting that members of the Republican party feel emboldened to engage in racist and quite frankly fascist remarks."

Why Min's own citizenship is the point

Min is a birthright citizen. His parents were in the United States on student visas when he was born, and did not naturalize until afterward. Under the Fourteenth Amendment, that makes him a citizen. Under the position Gill has been pushing, it might not have.

That is not a hypothetical about Gill. It is his actual portfolio.

We have already covered what he does with the gavel: Gill has subpoenaed "birth tourism companies" and floated "criminal conspiracy" charges against the businesses that arrange those births, as part of the Republican push to end birthright citizenship. Min is describing the version of that policy where he personally is on the wrong side of the line.

So when a member says out loud that he is worried the chairman might come after his citizenship for saying the wrong thing, he is pointing at a specific record: a chairman who tried it on a colleague, and who runs the birthright citizenship investigation.

The task force's name is doing a lot of work

Gill's task force is called "Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses."

Under his chairmanship it has gone after birthright citizenship, which is written into the Fourteenth Amendment. Its chairman has circulated a petition to deport an American citizen who is also an elected member of the House. Confronted with it from the dais, he made a joke.

Gill is also not the only Republican pointing this weapon at Americans by name. Georgia's Andrew Clyde posted "No more Islamic immigration. Denaturalize, deport, repeat," then made the same demand — "Denaturalize. Deport. Defend 2A." — about a Virginia state senator he blamed for a gun law he did not like.

And Gill's own record on who counts as American is not limited to citizenship law. His answer to being called racist was that the accusation has lost its power. Told by a colleague that the reason is his calling Indian Americans "7-Eleven workers," he said nothing back.

What the record shows

Brandon Gill chairs a House task force named for defending constitutional rights. In February 2025 he circulated a campaign petition to deport Rep. Ilhan Omar, an American citizen since 2000, to Somalia over things she had said. On September 1, 2026, Rep. Dave Min — a birthright citizen whose parents were on student visas when he was born — told Gill's own hearing that he fears Gill would try to revoke his citizenship for saying something Gill dislikes. Gill's response was a one-line joke.