U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Salem, introduced a bill to redirect federal gambling taxes from the U.S. Treasury to Immigration and Custom Enforcement for enforcement, detention and deportation operations.

The bill faces an uphill climb in the U.S. Senate where it would need to get to the 60-vote threshold for approval. Republicans have 53 members in the 100-seat Senate.

The Giving Alien Migrants Back Through Lawful Excise Redistribution (GAMBLER) Act would take the estimated $300 million annually collected from the federal excise taxes levied on gambling operators that goes to the Treasury’s general fund and instead allocate it to ICE.

The excise tax funding goes toward the overall pool of federal revenue and is allocated by Congress as its members see fit.

Rulli’s bill comes after protests, including violent ones, in Los Angeles against President Donald Trump’s immigration raids and deportations. Trump ordered the deployment of the National Guard and the Marines to stop the protests in Los Angeles. There are protests in other cities.

Rulli said: “We’ve all witnessed the blatant disregard for law and order in Los Angeles — and frankly, enough is enough. Working-class Americans are paying the price while blue states and sanctuary cities harbor millions of illegal aliens who wave foreign flags in our streets, vandalize property and drain resources meant for our own citizens.”

Rulli added: “Our neighborhoods are being overrun, our laws ignored and our voices silenced by an out-of-touch elite that refuses to act. In any other country — or any other time in history — this would be called exactly what it is: an invasion. And the American people are done being ignored.”

Rulli, whose district includes all of Mahoning and Columbiana counties, said, “ICE needs every resource available to secure our laws,” and his bill would do so “without asking for one more penny from American families.”

The Mahoning County jail is holding about 95 inmates arrested by ICE and slated for deportation under a $4.5 million annual federal contract.

A group protested outside Rulli Bros., Rulli’s grocery store in Austintown, on Wednesday calling for a boycott of his business. Rulli and his family also own a grocery store in Boardman.

The group said it protested “Rulli’s continued support for billionaire interests over the needs of everyday Ohioans. His actions do not reflect the will of the people. They reflect the agenda of the wealthy elite.”

There have been other protests against Rulli in recent months including in front of his district office in Canfield and a fundraiser he hosted in Boardman, objecting to his votes, policies and for not holding town halls.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who unsuccessfully ran last year for vice president as a Democrat, came to Youngstown on April 7 as part of a national effort to draw attention to Republican members of Congress who don’t host town halls.

Rulli called the Walz event, which attracted about 3,000 people, a “pathetic spectacle.”

Rulli, first elected in June 2024, serves in what is considered a safe Republican district.