Since Donald J. Trump took office as president, the left has targeted nearly every policy, person and effort associated with him. But Trump's opponents may have reached a new low with their latest campaign---targeting a service for crime victims. During his Address to Congress earlier this year, President Trump announced the establishment of an office for Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE). The office provides a hotline for victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens to get help, information and resources. But leftists have begun trolling the line with prank calls in an effort to shut it down.
"I hear that they were reporting seeing (space) aliens and ridiculous things like that, and they jammed up the phone line," says Maria Espinoza, a victims' advocate with The Remembrance Project. Indeed, both CNN and NPR recently reported on callers giving phony reports to the VOICE hotline, with some of the perpetrators bragging about it on social media.
Espinoza tells KTRH these actions are only further hurting and marginalizing families who have lost loved ones at the hands of illegal immigrants. "The fact that people thought it was okay or funny to call in to a line that's meant for the victims of these vicious crimes is just evidence of re-victimization," she says. "It's telling the citizens who are most affected to shut up and sit down and that they don't matter, and it's happening one citizen at a time."
In a recent statement to Breitbart News, ICE officials criticized the hoax calls as "disrespectful to victims of crime and their families, and a waste of government resources."
Espinoza is encouraged by ICE efforts to try and stop the phony calls. "Obviously we can't stop people from calling in, however the calls have dramatically dropped, so that's good," she says. "But right now we're just moving forward and looking to be sure that these Americans' needs are met."