For the second straight day, the White House’s official Twitter account is targeting members of Congress who support abolishing ICE with targeted smears and false accusations.

On Tuesday afternoon, the White House account went after Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), who introduced legislation that would abolish ICE and ultimately redistribute its tasks to other law enforcement agencies.

“.@repmarkpocan, are you supporting human smuggling?” the tweet says. “You must not know that ICE serves as the leading U.S. law enforcement agency responsible for the fight against it.”

.@repmarkpocan, are you supporting human smuggling? You must not know that ICE serves as the leading U.S. law enforcement agency responsible for the fight against it. Here is a link to help you out: https://t.co/Hc6QoHXTZH — The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 3, 2018

Pocan is clearly not “supporting human smuggling.” His bill would reallocate ICE’s anti-trafficking work to other law enforcement agencies that President Trump is not using as his “personal police force,” as Pocan put it during a Fox & Friends interview last week. During the interview he made host Brian Kilmeade look silly by calmly debunking his string of gotcha questions.

“Unfortunately, the president has created this situation where ICE is not doing what it was created to do. It is being used as his own personal police force, and in those actions it is actually making it less safe because the critical functions of ICE can no longer happen when the president has them going after people in church and workplaces,” Pocan said during that interview.


Less than two hours after the White House attacked him on Tuesday, Pocan fired back, noting that the Trump administration has much more pressing things to worry about right now than targeting him on Twitter.

“Thanks for reaching out @WhiteHouse, but don’t @ me until you’ve reunited all 2,300 kids with their families,” Pocan tweeted.

Thanks for reaching out @WhiteHouse, but don't @ me until you've reunited all 2,300 kids with their families. https://t.co/XbbE3l9HSp — Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) July 3, 2018

Indeed, a court-imposed July 10 deadline for the Trump administration to reunite the more than 2,000 children it forcibly separated from their parents as a result of Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy is rapidly approaching. But it appears officials will have a hard time meeting the deadline.


On Tuesday, Politico, citing an Office of Refugee Resettlement official who spoke to the publication on the condition of anonymity, reported that administration officials haven’t even provided the office with guidance about how to make the reunifications happen.