An image shared on Facebook claims Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer deleted a tweet criticizing President Donald Trump’s temporary travel ban to and from China as “an excuse to further his ongoing war against immigrants.”

“You accidentally deleted this tweet!” reads part of the post. “Here, I saved it for you! Please RETWEET!”

Verdict: False

There is no record of Schumer ever tweeting or deleting the statement. A spokesman from his office confirmed the tweet was fabricated.

Fact Check: 

The Senate minority leader has taken to Twitter on several occasions to criticize the Trump administration’s response to the novel coronavirus outbreak. In late January, Trump signed an order temporarily barring most foreign nationals who had visited China recently from entering the U.S., according to The New York Times.

“The premature travel ban to and from China by the current administration is just an excuse to further his ongoing war against immigrants,” reads a Feb. 5 tweet Schumer purportedly deleted. “There must be a check and Balance on these restrictions.”

But the statement does not appear in ProPublica’s archive of the Senate minority leader’s deleted tweets on Feb. 5 or any other date. Vijaya Gadde, the global lead for legal, policy and trust and safety at Twitter, noted it appeared to be fake on Feb. 28.

This @SenSchumer tweet screenshot appears to be a fake: https://t.co/iUsNEeGoUY

Want to see if a politician deleted a tweet? We have a partnership with @politwoops that allows you to see that information (details here: https://t.co/lBVPOo1Tt4) https://t.co/LKJPoiqeUT

— Vijaya Gadde (@vijaya) February 29, 2020

Justin Goodman, a spokesman for Schumer, confirmed in an email to the Daily Caller that the tweet was fabricated: “He never tweeted it and therefore could never have deleted it.” (RELATED: Did The Vatican Confirm Pope Francis Has The Novel Coronavirus?)

Some websites erroneously circulated the fake tweet. For instance, the blog Powerline originally portrayed it as real in a February 29 post but later issued a correction, saying, “I regret not verifying the authenticity of the deleted tweet before posting this. I’m declaring it a hoax.”