Of the 4,602 calls received between April 26 and Sept. 30 last year, more than half — 2,515 calls — were classified as “unrelated” or “commentary,” the report said. Some 244 callers requested victim services — though the report notes that only 127 ultimately wanted social service referrals. Another 254 asked about the status of a case, part of a total of 843 questions that were referred to local ICE community relations officers. Of those, most called from Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, and New York City, according to the report. And 46 wanted help with the office’s automated alert system, which keeps them updated on the status of a suspect or convict.
Those numbers show that the vast majority of callers did not use the VOICE hotline the way it was described by Trump administration officials.
“The purpose of it is that a family that has suffered crime at the hands of an illegal alien can call our number, and we can simply tell them where that illegal alien is in the process of being deported or captured,” Kelly said in a television interview in April 2017. “That’s what the VOICE office is all about.”
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