Kamala Harris sides with MS-13 over ICE, White House says

The White House fired an extraordinary shot at Sen. Kamala Harris on Monday, taking to Twitter to accuse her of siding with a violent criminal gang over the country’s immigration enforcement agency.

Ms. Harris, a California Democrat seen to be eyeing a run at President Trump in 2020, has suggested the need to scrap U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The White House’s official twitter account said it figures Ms. Harris doesn’t know what ICE’s responsibilities are.

“@SenKamalaHarris, why are you supporting the animals of MS-13? You must not know what ICE really does,” the White House said, adding a link to an ICE press release describing deportation of an MS-13 member and other immigration targets.

Ms. Harris quickly took to the Internet to fundraise off the attack, asking supporters to pony up to help her battle the White House.

“Let me be very clear: As a career prosecutor, I actually went after gangs and transnational criminal organizations. That’s being a leader on public safety. What is not, is ripping babies from their mothers,” she said in her fundraising plea.

ICE is the agency that handles immigration detention and deportation — two areas of Mr. Trump’s policy that Democrats have objected to — but the agency also investigates online sex predators, combats violent gangs, sniffs out counterfeit merchandise and handles some cybersecurity investigations.

Abolishing the agency has become a major campaign issue for some Democrats on the left fringe of their party, though party leaders downplay such talk, saying instead that reforms are necessary.

Mr. Trump, meanwhile, has offered a full-throated defense of the officers and agents who make up the agency.

The White House twitter account has taken up the cause, firing off several tweets Monday pointing to ICE’s work taking down a drug trafficking operation and Customs and Border Protection officers’ arrest of 21 criminals a day at official U.S. ports off entry.