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Prank Calls Brought ICE Hotline To a Standstill, Internal Emails Show (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: When ICE launched an immigration crime hotline last year, the Trump administration pitched it as a way to provide resources to victims, but activists saw something else: an attack on the immigrant community. The hotline was part of the Victims Of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office, an outfit established in February 2017. When the office first launched a line for its services the following April, protestors flooded the hotline to call in pranks and slow down response times. The plan picked up even more steam as the protestors shared the hotline number online, encouraging others to call in with fake tips.
According to internal emails and documents obtained by The Verge under the Freedom of Information Act, prank calls fully upended the system, leaving operators unable to answer more than 98 percent of incoming calls during the protest as the media relations team attempted to contain the narrative. In reports and emails produced in the first days of operation, ICE officials described an "overwhelming" amount of calls. The day after the launch, the office received more than 16,400. Of those, only a little more than 2,100 were placed into a queue, and only 260 answered. Callers in the queue waited as long as 79 minutes to reach an operator. An official noted that, should the rate of calls continue, they would need an additional 400 operators to field the hotline.
According to internal emails and documents obtained by The Verge under the Freedom of Information Act, prank calls fully upended the system, leaving operators unable to answer more than 98 percent of incoming calls during the protest as the media relations team attempted to contain the narrative. In reports and emails produced in the first days of operation, ICE officials described an "overwhelming" amount of calls. The day after the launch, the office received more than 16,400. Of those, only a little more than 2,100 were placed into a queue, and only 260 answered. Callers in the queue waited as long as 79 minutes to reach an operator. An official noted that, should the rate of calls continue, they would need an additional 400 operators to field the hotline.
Now this sounds like a fun AI voice challenge: something to weed out the protesting trolls and drop them into queues where they think they're tying up the lines, while allowing people who really have a complaint through, using a mix of incoming phone number, question/response with caller and perhaps other input. Same thing with tips.
Ah, 1968, halcyon days...
On April 4, Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated.
The Orangeburg Massacre on February 18.
The Black Panthers emerged, with their own special brand of protests.
Bobby Kennedy was assassinated on June 5.
And the Democrat Party National Convention, a festival of peace and nonviolence. Not.
Yeah, we need more of that like we need a new strain of smallpox.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Thousands of Middle Easterners and Africans have entered the U.S. via the southern border. What's up for debate is how many of them have ties to terroristic organizations. But the existence of Arabs and other non-Hispanics among the migrants is hardly up for debate.
It's likely and possible that a handful of the current caravan are of Middle Eastern origin. How can one say for certainty that there aren't, when there is a history of such migrant behavior?
Regarding the funding and leadership of this group, it is also highly likely that someone with an interest in undermining the Trump Administration would at least be supportive of the caravan if not actively funding and guiding it. The obvious benefit is to create some nasty optics right before the November 6 elections: evil fascist ICE thugs gunning down helpless migrants, separating children from parents, etc.
The Mexicans have little interest in stopping them, even though actually Mexico has very strong trespassing laws of their own and normally will arrest and hold interlopers in prison, sometimes for years. In this case, they hardly even tried. Clearly, they would like to see the U.S. embarrassed.
It would appear that the scenario has somewhat backfired; the Republicans have seized on it as an example of Latin America's corruption and Democrat inability to formulate and support effective immigration law.
https://www.reuters.com/articl...
it's = "it is"; its = possessive. E.g., it's flapping its wings.
My great-great-great grandparents came, stood in line, and asked for permission to immigrate. Then they found land in a difficult region, farmed, and prospered.
On the other side of my family they came from England, carved a farm out of the woods, never met American Indians, and convinced the post-Revolution government to honor the land grant they received from the King of England. From then on they farmed hard, lumbered (both sides did this, odd), sent 19 sons and daughters to wars, smuggled booze, were actual sea pirates, and gave the town they lived in land for the town hall, fire station, high school and middle school, church, meeting house, and parsonage. And finally that line ended, 260+ years after they left England to first find success elsewhere, and then to become Americans. Both sides of my family exchanged the flag of their birth for a new one, and became Americans. Indeed, they left their native flags behind.
And yes, those here before them certainly considered them invaders, eventually. So yes, I see this mob headed north through Mexico, and waving their native flags, and I see them as nothing but invaders. That they don't carry arms doesn't change that, but it will inform our response at the border.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
If you dont clean up the sugar spilled on the middle of the floor and spend all your time putting ant shield around the house you would be called an idiot.
But... all the outrage shown by these people against illegal immigration is fake. They want cheap strawberries and cheap fast food and cheap lawn mowing and cheap home construction. If they are really against illegal immigration they will prosecute the employers.
As a concrete contractor who only hires legal workers, I welcome this wholeheartedly.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Oh, every one of your ancestors came through after 1891. Understood.
Prior to the Immigration Act of 1891 all anyone (who was not Asian) had to do to immigrate to the U.S. was show up at the border (or any port). And prior to 1875 even Asians could immigrate freely.
In 1891 the U.S. population was 61 million. Anyone who has even one ancestor who was resident in the U.S. in 1891 is descended from someone who only had to show up to get in - everyone was automatically "legal".
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
What's your point?
They came in legally back then.
How many other 1891 era laws do you want to go back to?