

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said he will support President Trump's push for the construction of a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border if Republicans will agree to protect so-called "Dreamers."

“I think it will be a monumental waste of taxpayers money to build a monument to stupidity,” Gutierrez told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin on Saturday.

“But if that’s what it’s going to take to take 800,000 young men and women and give them a chance to live freely and openly in America, then I will roll up my sleeves. And I will go down there with bricks and mortar and begin the wall,” he continued.

A member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Gutierrez has long been an outspoken critic of the president’s immigration stance, specifically the proposed border wall.

“And let me just say that wall is offensive to me,” he said while explaining that protecting the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which is set to expire in March, is more important. DACA, which was a policy enacted by former President Barack Obama, provides protections to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. with their parents as children.

DACA has becoming a sticking point among Democrats who voted against a short-term spending bill in the Senate late Friday, killing an effort to avoid a partial government shutdown.

Both the White House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have said they will not negotiate on immigration until a spending bill is passed.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to say former President Barack Obama enacted a policy, not signed into law, to initiate DACA.