Interspersed with smiling photos of President Trump meeting with the prime minister of the Netherlands and first lady Melania Trump visiting Walter Reed, the official White House Twitter feed — not just the president’s famous personal account — has been filled with pointed criticisms of Democrats who want to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
[More: ‘Abolish ICE’ becomes rallying cry as Democrats move left on immigration]
“[A]re you supporting human smuggling?” the White House’s social media scribes asked Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., who has introduced a bill to abolish ICE. “You must not know that ICE serves as the leading U.S. law enforcement agency responsible for the fight against it.”
To Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., the White House sent the following message: “[W]hy are you supporting something that would protect drug smugglers? You must not know what CBP and ICE really do.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was asked: “[W]hy are you supporting criminals moving weapons, drugs, and victims across our nation’s borders? You must not know what ICE really does.”
And then Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., was asked: “[W]hy are you supporting the animals of MS-13? You must not know what ICE really does.”
Each tweet featured a link to online resources explaining ICE’s mission. The White House has also been busily tweeting and retweeting examples of ICE agents’ heroism. All this amplifies what the president has been saying about the immigration enforcement agency on the Internet and in public.
“We’re not abandoning ICE and we’re not abandoning law enforcement — just the opposite,” Trump said in West Virginia last week. But the Democrats are, he argued in a state where Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., faces a tough reelection battle this year.
Sources close to the White House told the Washington Examiner that the president and his allies are determined to not let the Democrats get the better of them on immigration ahead of the midterm elections, following the harsh backlash against family separation at the border — fueled, they claimed, in part by slanted media coverage. ICE abolition becoming a liberal litmus test puts the Trump team back on the offensive, these sources believe.
“These Democrats are either completely ignorant of the vital role ICE agents play, or they’re simply OK with human trafficking, money laundering, letting the opioid crisis rage on, enabling dangerous criminals to get ahold of guns, and, in the recent case of the illegal immigrant arsonist from Denmark, turning a blind eye as wildfires destroy people’s homes in Colorado,” said Erin Montgomery, communications director for the Trump-aligned America First Action. “Either way, they’re right that the call for the abolishment of ICE is a winning strategy — but for President Trump and his allies, not for them.”
Polls suggest Trump and the Democrats have fought immigration to a draw. Quinnipiac found that voters disapproved of how the president is handling the issue by a margin of 58 percent to 39 percent. They are also split on the question of whether Trump is a racist, with 49 percent saying yes to 47 percent choosing no. Family separation is brutally unpopular.
Yet the same survey found 60 percent believed Democrats are “more interested in exploiting the nation’s immigration issue for political gain” as opposed to 34 percent who say they are more committed to “resolving the nation’s immigration issue.” Fifty percent said Trump’s immigration policies were motivated by “a sincere interest in controlling our borders” to 34 percent who attributed them to “racist beliefs.”
A Harvard/Harris poll conducted by longtime Clinton pollster Mark Penn saw large majorities in favor of sending illegal border-crossers and any children accompanying them back to their home countries. Most also favored detaining families — together, not separately — pending judicial proceedings over releasing them into the United States. And a HuffPost/YouGov poll showed many more Republicans naming immigration as one of their top two concerns than the tax law Trump still touts, though less regularly than his law-and-order border message.
A legislative stalemate has also ensued, as both Trump’s border wall and the Democrats’ deportation relief for Dreamers stalled.
Trump and many of his supporters are convinced the Democrats’ hurried embrace of ICE abolition is just the tiebreaker they need in November.
“Far more evidence of corruption and incompetence in the DOJ than ICE,” said former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. “I’d start there if I could start abolishing or reorganizing any department.”
