Trump's new immigrant hotline to report 'illegal aliens' trolled by callers claiming to have seen UFOs
Pranksters have been mass-calling President Trump's new immigrant crime hotline to report UFOs and alien sightings on its first day.
The controversial VOICE hotline launched on Wednesday and is an attempt from the new administration to tackle problems linked to immigration.
Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly said: “Until today, those victimised at the hands of illegal aliens have had no point of contact in our federal government dedicated to this issue and to them. Families would call and would send letters all over Washington hoping that someone in some agency would respond.”
The new office, belonging to the Department of Homeland Security, promises to offer help and assistance to "victims and their families who have been impacted by crimes committed by removable criminal aliens".
However, Twitter was quick to pick up on the government's choice of wording - and users soon began to troll the phone number with reports of extraterrestrials.
If any of you need to report space aliens to our government, please call their hotline: 1-855-48-VOICE. Here are some of their Most Wanted: pic.twitter.com/nWnVYdDdpG
— Steven Santos (@stevensantos) 27 April 2017
The truth IS out there! If you've been probed by illegal extraterrestrial aliens, call 1-855-48-VOICE & let them know. pic.twitter.com/PEXbJL9XUG
— Jordan (@_Jordan_J_) 27 April 2017
Called Trump's "VOICE" hotline for people to report "illegal aliens". I reported seeing a bloated orange humanoid.
Join me:
1 855 488 6423— Carlos in California (@_Notwhite) 27 April 2017
Activists rallied on social media under the hashtag #AlienDay to encourage others to flood the hotline with fake calls.
Wednesday happened to coincide with Alien Day, which commemorates the 1986 sci-fi classic starring Sigourney Weaver.
Others made reference to cult 90s sci-fi series The X-Files, or reported sightings of aliens that looked suspiciously like a '"bloated orange humanoid".
somebody call 1-855-48-VOICE, an orange colored, toupee wearing alien in a bathrobe has been spotted at 1600 Pensylvania Ave ��#AlienDay
— modrax (@modrax) 27 April 2017
In case you want to share your X-Files fan fiction with DHS...
1-855-48-VOICE https://t.co/o0LUR6GCCS— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) 27 April 2017
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) 26 April 2017
This unexpected use of the hotline was surely different from what Kelly had envisaged.
Recent months have seen a sharp fall in the number of people arrested for attempted crossings at the US-Mexico border, which the White House views as a sign that its policies are successfully deterring would-be immigrants.
However, critics of the Trump administration's anti-immigrant stance claim that it discriminates against undocumented migrants.
Several studies have show that immigrants, both documented and undocumented, are less likely to commit serious crimes or be put in prison than US-born citizens.
“This just continues the campaign strategy Donald Trump employed to vilify immigrants and identify them with a small number of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants,” Brent Wilkes, head the of League of United Latin American Citizens, told the New York Times.
