Twitter trolls Trump's anti-immigrant hotline with calls about space aliens
Seen a space alien lately? Maybe you should tell Donald Trump about it.
On Wednesday, his administration unveiled the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office, or VOICE, which gave out a hotline number for those impacted by "criminal aliens." (Back to that in a second.)
Seeing as resources are already available for victims of crime, it seems odd to offer them specifically for victims of crimes by immigrants. As the editorial board of USA TODAY noted, "this country doesn’t create separate programs for victims of crimes by Jews or Catholics or African Americans or Asians or juveniles."
It seems odd, of course, unless your goal is to demonize immigrants and cast them as a threat to public safety -- even though they commit lower levels of crime than native-born Americans.
So, the good users of Twitter decided people should call VOICE about "aliens" -- especially since it was #AlienDay, inspired by a reference from Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi flick.
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Finally, someone will listen to Mulder and Scully and Tom DeLonge from Blink-182. Aliens exist. Soon Trump will know about it.👽
Topics Social Media Donald Trump Immigration
Keith Wagstaff is an assistant editor at Mashable and a terrible Settlers of Catan player. He has written for TIME, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, NBC News, The Village Voice, VICE, GQ and New York Magazine, among many other reputable and not-so-reputable publications. After nearly a decade in New York City, he now lives in his native Los Angeles.
