Montana Gov. Steve Bullock Steve BullockCourt removes Pendley from role as public lands chief On The Trail: Making sense of this week's polling tsunami McConnell locks down key GOP votes in Supreme Court fight MORE (D), a 2020 White House hopeful, on Sunday blasted acting United States Citizenship and Immigration Services head Ken Cuccinelli, saying putting the immigration hardliner in charge of immigration is similar to tasking Russian president Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich PutinWatchdog confirms State Dept. canceled award for journalist who criticized Trump Former intelligence agency director Robert Cardillo speaks out against 'erratic' Trump Kremlin: Putin calls for reset between US and Russia on cyber relations before elections MORE with monitoring elections.

“Putting him in charge of immigration is like putting Putin in charge of election security,” Bullock told “Fox News Sunday” guest host Dana Perino in response to Cuccinelli’s defense of a proposed rule that would expand the types of public aid whose recipients are considered a “public charge,” which could prevent them from receiving green cards.

Gov Steve Bullock (D-MT) @GovernorBullock talks to Dana about immigration "I served with Ken Cuccinelli when he was Attorney General, Putting him in charge of immigration would be like putting Putin in charge of election security" pic.twitter.com/jiZndIpSyQ — FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) August 18, 2019

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“I’m for border security, I’m for figuring out comprehensive immigration reform,” said Bullock, who has frequently touted his victory in a state that went overwhelmingly for President Trump Donald John TrumpFederal prosecutor speaks out, says Barr 'has brought shame' on Justice Dept. Former Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick MORE as evidence of his electability, adding that the Trump administration has used immigration policies to “not only rip families apart, but this country apart.”

Cuccinelli has vocally defended the proposed “public charge” rule in the past week, to the point of revising Emma Lazarus’s poem on the base of the Statue of Liberty to “give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge.”

The former Virginia attorney general defended the alteration last week, telling CNN “that poem referred back to people coming from Europe where they had class-based societies.”

Immigration advocates have warned that the expansion of the rule, which would cover Medicaid and food stamps, could intimidate legal immigrants into foregoing aid they need to survive.