In April 2017, President Trump’s administration launched a hotline for crime victims to call if they believe they were the victims of crimes committed by people that are in America illegally. The White House’s goal was to create a means for Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents to prioritize cases to research and follow up on.
Social activists with a sense of humor felt that the President’s administration and the leadership team at ICE have been wrongfully demonizing immigrants. Since immigrants are often referred to as ‘illegal aliens’, thousands of outraged citizens began calling the hotline to leave messages reporting plotlines from classic films featuring extraterrestrial aliens (”A small creature with a long neck, wide body, and glowing finger stole my Reese’s Pieces” or “Something jumped on my face and now I feel like my chest is about to explode” were common examples).
The subject of immigration and enforcement of immigration law is at the heart of many national debates across the country. In fact, people are very passionate about their feelings on the subject and can often react with anger and shouting. While the hotline may have been well intentioned, it was clearly perceived as offensive by some segments of America. With the national debate being as intense as it is, it is nice to see that this act of protest chose humor over shouting as a way to express feelings that conflict with people on the other side of the debate. Hopefully more laughs will help heal a divide created by divisive subjects in national conversation.
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Questions:
1) How do you feel about the hotline, and what causes you to feel that way?
2) Do you think there could be some benefit or are you entirely against it, and why do you feel that way?
3) What about the protesters’ decision to use humor to express their dissatisfaction with a national policy – Why and how do you find their tactics either effective or just silly?
Be sure to provide full explanations for each of your answers. For more details, you can read the article this piece was sourced from here:
