A scuffle broke out in the Texas legislature Monday over a protest against the state’s clampdown on “sanctuary cities,” media reports said, ending in a threat by one state representative to shoot another.

“ “I made it clear that if he attempted to, in his words, ‘get me,’ I would shoot him in self defense.” ”

At around 11 a.m. local time, hundreds of demonstrators in the gallery of the House Chamber in Austin began chanting their opposition to a tough new law that prohibits the adoption of sanctuary city policies, The New York Times reported.

The noise drowned out lawmakers, leading the House session to be stopped and state troopers called in to remove the protesters.

But a melee then broke out on the House floor after Rep. Matt Rinaldi, a Republican, told a group of Democratic lawmakers that he had reported the protesters to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Democratic Rep. César J. Blanco said Rinaldi told them, “We are going to have them deported,” according to the Times report.

Amid the scuffle, Rinaldi made a threat to “put a bullet in the head” of someone, with the threat appearing to be aimed at Rep. Poncho Nevárez, his fellow Democratic lawmakers said, according to The Texas Observer.

In a post to Facebook after the incident, Rinaldi said he had been physically assaulted by one Democratic representative and others had been restrained from doing the same.

“Today, Representative Poncho Nevárez threatened my life on the House floor after I called ICE on several illegal immigrants who held signs in the gallery which said ‘I am illegal and here to stay,’” Rinaldi said in the post.

“I made it clear that if he attempted to, in his words, ‘get me,’ I would shoot him in self defense,” the Texas Republican said, adding he is currently under official protection.

Taking to Twitter for his reply, Nevárez appeared to deny Rinaldi’s claims, saying the Republican was a “liar and a hateful man.”

Nevárez also called his fellow lawmaker a “coward” as he criticized the call to ICE, saying it was a foretaste of how the anti-sanctuary city bill would play out. The bill, signed into law in May, is seen as one of the toughest in the U.S. in this area. It aims to prevent municipalities and police departments from holding back on cooperating with federal authorities that want to enforce immigration law.