Immigration and Customs Enforcement denied Thursday that a reported wave of prank calls to a hotline for the victims of undocumented immigrant crime had disrupted the hotline.
That hotline, launched Wednesday by the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement office, established via a presidential executive order, is meant as central governmental resource for the victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.
Pretty much as soon as the line — 1-855-48-VOICE — went live, though, people began calling with reports of real aliens.
Wouldn't it be a shame if millions of people called this hotline to report their encounters with aliens of the UFO-variety. https://t.co/Cl048Gihnk
— Alexander McCoy (@AlexanderMcCoy4) April 26, 2017
The # for Trump's hotline to report "criminal aliens" is 855-48-VOICE
Please do not call this number to describe plots of X-Files episodes.
— HAUNTED APPLEBEE'S (@dubsteppenwolf) April 27, 2017
“The VOICE line remains in operation and was not disrupted,” ICE spokesperson Bryan Cox told TPM in an email, referring to “prank call reports.”
“As yesterday was its first day, I can’t give you any sense of whether this group had any impact at all on wait times or call volume because there’s no prior data to compare,” he added.
An agency spokesperson issued a similar confirmation of prank call activity to BuzzFeed on Wednesday, saying, “There are certainly more constructive ways to make one’s opinions heard than to prevent legitimate victims of crime from receiving the information and resources they seek because the lines are tied up by hoax callers.”
Trump announced the VOICE office in his address to a joint session of Congress in late February, saying, “We are providing a voice to those who have been ignored by our media and silenced by special interests.”
Cox told TPM in the same email that he did not have an anticipated date for the release of VOICE’s first report on “the effects of the victimization by criminal aliens present in the United States,” as specified in the executive order establishing the office.
That same executive order has run into some trouble recently: On Tuesday, a judge issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against one section in it threatening so-called “sanctuary cities” with the withdrawal of federal funds.
And, earlier this month, ICE temporarily ceased publication of an error-prone weekly report, also authorized by the order, on localities that refused to cooperate with its detainer requests for suspected undocumented immigrants.
Well, Donnie is the Area 51 of American Presidency’s, so there is a nice symmetry to it.
Coverup! Rosewell! ROSWELL!!!
What a great idea. Having neighbors turn on each other. What could possibly go wrong??
It’s got a nice Nazi era overtone to it.