Today ICE announced the creation of a new office to serve as a point of contact for those who have "concerns, questions, recommendations or important issues they would like to raise." Boy, do we!
The office will be led by Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, who has been at ICE since 2008, mainly working as an advisor on reforming detention practices. Prior to joining ICE, Strait was a legal services attorney in Prince George's County, Md.
Strait sees his job as helping to flack the administration's non-enforcement policies, which he calls "sensible priorities". He says he will "strive to expand and enhance our dialogue with the stakeholder community." Except to Strait, the only stakeholders worthy of attention are illegal aliens and their advocates.
But I think we should take his statement at face value. He says one of his main duties is to "assist individuals and community stakeholders in addressing complaints and concerns in accordance with agency policies and operations, particularly concerns related to ICE enforcement actions that affect U.S. citizens".
Since ICE has not seen fit to establish a victim's advocacy unit to address the concerns of victims and families, instead establishing a hotline for illegal aliens in detention, I hope all you citizens out there who have been affected by illegal immigration – especially those who have been the victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens – will not hesitate to get in touch with Mr. Strait, and let him and his staff hear your concerns. In his blog, he said he is "thrilled" to be in this role, and hopes you'll reach out to him. He can be reached at andrew.strait@dhs.gov or (202) 732-3999.
