Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is comparing giving sanctuary to undocumented immigrants in the U.S. to giving shelter to Jews fleeing the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

"And if you ask yourself 'What would I do if I was a gentile in 1941, if my Jewish neighbors were under attack by the Nazis? Would I give them sanctuary?'" Ellison said Monday in comments on President Trump's move to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Ellison said that as many as 100 million Americans "are deeply connected to people who have immigrated to the United States, some with official papers, some with none."

"I'm one of the people who believes we should give our neighbors sanctuary," he told supporters in Minneapolis, as reported by the NTK Network.

Trump said earlier this month he was ending the Obama-era program, which spares from deportation those who were brought to the U.S. as children. The president, however, has called for a legislative solution and indicated a willingness to work with Democrats on the proposed Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.

Ellison, who has pushed against Trump's decision to end DACA, made his comments the same day House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) confronted a crowd of angry protesters at a DREAM Act press conference in California. The activists, furious with Pelosi for dealing with Trump on the issue, eventually shouted her off the stage.

"So this is not someone else's fight; this is all our fight but some people are in the bull's eye and others of us are not exactly the target. Therefore, it is our responsibility to stand up and fight and do the right thing," Ellison said.