Trump administration blasts Ilhan Omar over 'vile lie' accusing ICE of using autistic child as bait

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security berated Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota for pushing a "vile lie" about immigration enforcement tactics.

Omar was responding to a report from the family of a Guatemalan man who was being sought Tuesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. They claimed that ICE agents held the autistic 5-year-old daughter of Edwards Hip Mejia as bait to try to coax him out of his home.

'This is a vile lie. [Ilhan Omar's] habitual lies and demonization of our law enforcement is what's cruel.'

"This is vile and beyond cruel. Abolish ICE," Omar replied on social media Tuesday.

However, the social media post she included was deleted by NBC News.

Dept. of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin fired off a statement excoriating Omar for pushing the story and offering additional information to undermine the story.

"This is a vile lie. [Ilhan Omar's] habitual lies and demonization of our law enforcement is what's cruel," McLaughlin wrote.

"ICE agents NEVER used a 5-year-old girl as 'bait.' The criminal illegal alien target — with previous arrests for domestic abuse and strangulation, among other charges — ABANDONED his own child in a car," she added.

She went on to say that Mejia had ignored law enforcement emergency lights and instead drove to his home.

"He fled from the car, gave officers the double middle finger, and darted inside his house. He abandoned his 5-year-old daughter in the car. Officers helped rescue the child and called local police to report the abandonment."

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Leominster police arrived at the home and returned the girl to the family. The family said that federal officers returned to the home two days later on the mother's birthday and arrested Mejia.

He is reportedly being held at an ICE detention center in Plymouth. His wife said that he had been in the U.S. for about 25 years.

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