ICE’s disconnect

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has launched a new office, with a toll-free hotline, for what it described in an April 26 news release as “victims of crime committed by criminal aliens.”

Americans responded by flooding the new hotline with phone calls about space aliens.

Social media users encouraged each other to call in with imaginative reports, including UFO abductions and taxpayer complaints about first lady Melania Trump, an immigrant from Slovenia.

The line crashed Thursday morning, and wait times were more than 20 minutes. ICE officials were reportedly furious. But they brought this on themselves.

What on Earth is the useful purpose of establishing a new office for “crimes committed by criminal aliens?”

It’s not to deter crime. That would have been accomplished with increased funding for proven crimeprevention tools.

No, the only reason for establishing this office was the desire to demonize undocumented immigrants. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said, claiming that “all crime is terrible, but these victims are unique . ... They are casualties of crimes that should never have taken place.”

That’s insulting news to all of the crime victims of Americanborn criminals.

Plenty of Americans think so, too. The space-alien prank may sound ridiculous, but its intent was deadly serious.

The Trump administration’s determination to vilify unauthorized immigrants has real impacts on U.S. families and our collective public safety. Genuine crime prevention and investigation is based on facts, not stereotypes, and does not discriminate on the basis of color or immigration status.