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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.
So that's a win, right?
TFS says Trump's making 400 new jobs with this program...
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
If you are here in this country illegally, you have criminally trespassed. You should be deported.
That is the current law.
If folks don't like that, then start to put pressure on your congress-critters and have them change the laws.
I agree we need to update and fix the immigration laws. It should be fair, and a more simple and less $$ process, BUT, it also should allow for control of who all gets to come in. I think we could look to encourage more immigration from those that are educated and can come to the US and help the workforce and economy right away.
There will be some lower educated types too, as that all levels are needed, but the ratio needs to be controlled.
But I just don't get these seemingly increasing number of folks in the US promoting full blown open borders, with no control of who gets in here.
While it is noble to take our great wealth and resources to help others around the world, we can NOT support the whole world and cannot house or bring everyone and their goat into our country.
If countries, such as in South America are having such problems,.....we can't bring everyone here, those people need to fix things at HOME and stay there.....
ICE is the part of the federal government that helps control immigration and deports those that come here illegally. Why do we not support them?
Hell, one of the few constitutionally enumerated responsibilities and powers of the federal government IS to protect our borders.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Simple math. Some people just donâ(TM)t get it
It's a serious felony to prank-call LEAs. Prosecute the prank-callers and put them in prison. As soon as the first wave of prosecutions occur, the prank-calling will all but disappear.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
"And nothing of value was lost"
Silence is a state of mime.
My home extends to my walls -- a country is just a plot of land cursed with a (generally bad) government. I don't see a country as my home, just a political unit that I happen to be unfortunate enough to live under.
I don't see a country as my home, just a political unit that I happen to be unfortunate enough to live under.
So you wouldn't mind if people destroyed the roads, for example ?
It's a well established form of protest. Most protest is some kind of denial of service attack, be it temporarily blocking a road as you march down it or peacefully sitting in an area. Other examples include paying fines in pennies and deliberately spoiling ballot papers.
The correct term is "protest calls".
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
More like wasting the resources of a poorly thought out institution that serves no real purpose other than to validate bigotry.
I understand members of the American public are justifiably outraged by the presence in the United States of some particularly heinous scofflaws. Apparently these evil people have managed to anger tens of thousands of upstanding American citizens, who have reported them to ICE repeatedly.
Chinga-Sue Madray, ICE is coming for you! Afooku Sosumi, there will be nowhere for you to hide! Sookma Har-Dwon, soon you will regret slipping into America!
You have been warned. Govern yourselves accordingly!
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Well, that would be Asians that crossed the bearing straight. You know, came from a different continent and was not originally from here. Oh wait, that destroys your whole argument.
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
Isn't this also illegal? It seems like this would be equivalent to prank calling 911 which I'm pretty sure is already illegal in many areas. Calling in and harassing law enforcement or giving fake tips to a crime seems like something that a person should be able to be prosecuted for. I'm all for peaceful protesting and call your congressman by the thousands and complain all you want but law breakers should be prosecuted not cheered. I saw a similar article today about a bunch of graffiti all over Yale and the liberals all cheering them all. We shouldn't be cheering on people who do illegal things whether it is crossing the border, interfering with law enforcement, or vandalism. There are plenty of peaceful non destructive ways to protest that are still very effective. Law breaking protesters should be prosecuted just like anyone else.
they would need an additional 400 operators
I have done consultancy work on some major call centres. If it takes an agent more than 3 minutes on average to process a call, including wrap-up time after the caller has gone, then there is something wrong with the IT.
At that rate an agent working an 8 hour shift would be expected to handle about 160 calls. To require 400 agents to field 16,000 calls means they are taking 40 calls per person in a shift. Maybe down to 20 if the call centre is running 2 shifts. There will be peak times when some calls will be lost, but using those numbers as a guide means that the agents are taking far too long handling each call.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark.
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city
running as well.
your neighbours running faster
than you, the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind
the old tin factory is
holding a gun bigger than his body,
you only leave home
when home won't let you stay.
no one would leave home unless home
chased you, fire under feet,
hot blood in your belly.
it's not something you ever thought about
doing, and so when you did -
you carried the anthem under your breath,
waiting until the airport toilet
to tear up the passport and swallow,
each mouthful of paper making it clear that
you would not be going back.
you have to understand,
no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land.
who would choose to spend days
and nights in the stomach of a truck
unless the miles travelled
meant something more than journey.
no one would choose to crawl under fences,
be beaten until your shadow leaves you,
raped, then drowned, forced to the bottom of
the boat because you are darker, be sold,
starved, shot at the border like a sick animal,
be pitied, lose your name, lose your family,
make a refugee camp a home for a year or two or ten,
stripped and searched, find prison everywhere
and if you survive and you are greeted on the other side
with go home blacks, refugees
dirty immigrants, asylum seekers
sucking our country dry of milk,
dark, with their hands out
smell strange, savage -
look what they've done to their own countries,
what will they do to ours?
the dirty looks in the street
softer than a limb torn off,
the indignity of everyday life
more tender than fourteen men who
look like your father, between
your legs, insults easier to swallow
than rubble, than your child's body
in pieces - for now, forget about pride
your survival is more important.
i want to go home, but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home tells you to
leave what you could not behind,
even if it was human.
no one leaves home until home
is a damp voice in your ear saying
leave, run now, i don't know what
i've become.
but i know that anywhere is safer than here. (Painting: Holy Family Icon by Kelly Latimore)
Silence is a state of mime.
Good point !! And have you thought about the various causes that would lead to such a thing ? Hmm? Have you ?
"Countries are just lines drawn in the sand with a stick." - Enter Shikari
I tend to rant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UouJ9HT3WOs
Because private companies can design and build actual spaceships, but it's literally impossible to lay a thin strip of asphalt on the ground without government!
Hmmm, you must be a big fan of toll roads then..
My home extends to my walls -- a country is just a plot of land cursed with a (generally bad) government. I don't see a country as my home, just a political unit that I happen to be unfortunate enough to live under.
Your thinking is muddled. Am I allow to camp out on your front lawn then? If not, how about the sidewalk in front of your house? Lastly - if it's so bad why don't you leave? Go to where the grass is always greener.
New?
We've had departments of immigration officers that rounded up and deported illegals for a LONG time.
Hell, for a good public example of it, look in Cheech and Chong's first movie Up in Smoke where they get caught up in a raid by the "migra" and sent across the border into Mexico.
This isn't anything new.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
It's a myth most Democrats are for "open borders". Most also want to curb illegal immigration, but the current administration is doing it wrong. Walls are too easy to defeat by themselves, and expensive. I propose the following steps:
1. Hire and train more border guards. Democrats have proposed this before; they are usually not against it. (I say "usually" because, yes, they do play political games, as both parties do.)
2. Invest R&D in crosser auto-detection. Past attempts failed, but if research is kept up, they'll get better with time.
3. Audit business payroll and hiring. This will require tax money and will inconvenience businesses. (Businesses lobbying against this is one reason why GOP has been reluctant to act.)
4. Some sort of amnesty is probably necessary. We don't have the manpower to boot out those already here, and many of them have established family ties.
5. Try to bring peace to Central and South American countries rocked by violence and drug wars.
6. Treat people and countries with respect. Insults and harsh treatment of children only make the problem worse.
7. Have a more flexible temporary migrant worker system.
Table-ized A.I.
Exactly. They aren't "prank" calls.
We really need to stop trying to classify each sicko in our society as a political operative. It's ghoulish to take a tragedy and try to make political hay out of it.
Also, you don't know who is shipping bombs nor their motivation (unless it is you!).
Thats great that you think that the ICE is a "waste". Lets just open the borders wide open and see how long you survive.
Where did I mention the level of taxation? I just said "taxpayer".
Not ICE. While its current marching orders I strongly disagree with, I don't think ICE should be disbanded. I think this call center was a waste.
No. At the end of the day, it's just a plot of land (can be nice land) lorded over by a government. Proud cynic here.
Yeah, or just get rid of citizenship all together and save even more money!
The problem is the second term in your equation is false.
Just like every group of immigrants before them, it's grandchildren who are fully assimilated.
Or help improve poverty in Central America. Illegal immigration from Mexico has gone down and primarily because its economy has been improving. However illegal immigration from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador has gone up because those economies are bad, the police there are ineffective, and the governments are failing. When most illegal immigrants are willing to endure the extremely hazardous desert crossing, then it's clear that a tougher stance isn't going to be much deterrence.
Here is a thought. Name one fucking nation/origional occupant that DID NOT TRY TO CONTROL immigration to THEIR LAND. No matter what fucking generation.
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time