The Trump administration this week launched a new hotline called the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) for people to learn more information about crimes that have been committed by undocumented immigrants.
However, the hotline was quickly flooded by pranksters who called up to report their close encounters with a different kind of "illegal alien" -- namely, space aliens who fly around in saucer-shaped ships.
Fusion on Thursday asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement for a response to the people who called them to talk about space aliens, and an agency spokesperson angrily lashed out by calling everyone who participated in the prank "despicable."
"I hope you won’t dignify this group with the attention they are seeking," the spokesperson told Fusion. "But if you choose to do so... this group’s cheap publicity stunt is beyond the pale of legitimate public discourse. Their actions seek to obstruct and do harm to crime victims; that’s objectively despicable regardless of one’s views on immigration policy."
ICE says that the purpose of the hotline is to serve "the needs of crime victims and their families who have been impacted by crimes committed by removable criminal aliens." Among other things, the hotline offers "additional criminal or immigration history... about an alien" that can be delivered "to victims or their families."