White House chief of staff John Kelly John Francis KellyMORE on Monday shot back at Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) after Gutiérrez said the former general was a “disgrace to the uniform” for serving President Trump after Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

In an email to Fox News, Kelly said Gutiérrez “has a right to his opinion” but countered that Congress had done “nothing” to solve problems with DACA.

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“As far as the congressman and other irresponsible members of Congress are concerned, they have the luxury of saying what they want as they do nothing and have almost no responsibility,” Kelly said. “They can call people liars, but it would be inappropriate for me to say the same thing back at them.

“As my blessed mother used to say, ‘Empty barrels make the most noise.’ ”

In a statement last week, Gutiérrez blasted Kelly, calling him a “hypocrite” who has “no honor.”

"General Kelly is a hypocrite who is a disgrace to the uniform he used to wear. He has no honor and should be drummed out of the White House along with the white supremacists and those enabling the President’s actions by ‘just following orders,' " Gutiérrez said.

The congressman’s comments came after Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status White House officials voted by show of hands on 2018 family separations: report MORE announced that the Trump administration would be ending the DACA program, which protects undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children from being deported.

Approximately 800,000 people are recipients of DACA protections. Sessions said last week that no new applications for the program would be accepted, and the program itself would see a six-month phaseout.

Trump has suggested he will revisit his decision to end DACA if Congress fails to pass legislation on the matter in the next six months.