Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) on Monday accused Democrats of making the Republican party’s push for stronger border security about race, the Huffington Post reported.

“This is a part of the war on whites that’s being launched by the Democratic Party. And the way in which they’re launching this war is by claiming that whites hate everybody else,” Brooks told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham. “It’s part of the strategy that Barack Obama implemented in 2008, continued in 2012, where he divides us all on race, on sex, greed, envy, class warfare, all those kinds of things. Well that’s not true.”

Brooks made the accusation in response to National Journal columnist Ron Fournier’s comment on “Fox News Sunday” that the Republican Party is becoming “the party of white people.”

The congressman defended his stance on immigration, arguing that “every single demographic group” would be negatively impacted by an increase of undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

“Democrats, they have to demagogue on this and try and turn it into a racial issue, which is an emotional issue, rather than a thoughtful issue,” Brooks said. “If it becomes a thoughtful issue, then we win and we win big. And they lose and they lose big.”

Ingraham then told Brooks that characterizing Democrats’ rhetoric as a “war on whites” was “a little out there.”

“That’s what they are doing though,” he responded.

Listen to Brooks’ interview with Ingraham here.