In victory for First Amendment rights of national NGO and advocates for people in immigration detention, new settlement requires ICE to maintain free and confidential access to hotline

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@freedomforimmigrants.org

OAKLAND, Calif. – Freedom for Immigrants (FFI), a national organization working to abolish the immigration detention system, settled its lawsuit against the federal government last week, winning a guarantee of continued use of its National Immigration Detention Hotline for at least a five-year period.

Under the settlement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agreed to provide uninterrupted access to FFI’s National Immigration Detention Hotline for people in the immigration detention system across more than 150 detention centers and jails across the country.

Freedom for Immigrants filed a lawsuit against ICE in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in 2019 in response to the agency shutting down its hotline in a Florida detention facility after the hotline gained public attention for being featured on several episodes of “Orange is the New Black.”

“ICE can not get away with sweeping its appalling human rights abuses under the rug,” said Layla Razavi, deputy executive director at Freedom for Immigrants. “ICE has tried again and again to silence and censor anyone who speaks out against its abusive immigration detention system. Our settlement ensures that the National Immigration Detention Hotline will continue to provide a critical line of communication to those in ICE custody and will allow us to keep bringing to light the horrors experienced by people inside without facing retaliation from ICE.”

In an order last year, U.S. District Judge André Birotte found that FFI’s speech “was a substantial and motivating factor behind DHS’s shutdown of the hotline.” The settlement, signed on Thursday, July 1, provides FFI recourse before the court should ICE seek to improperly restrict the hotline again.

“In a system designed to dehumanize and disempower, the National Immigration Detention Hotline provides a critical means of connection for people in detention who are isolated from their loved ones and communities,” said Amanda Díaz, Freedom for Immigrants hotline manager. “The hotline remains an indispensable tool in providing people in detention a secure way to report abuses and advocate for their freedom, and we are committed to maintaining and defending it until there is no one left in detention to place a call.”

“This settlement is a victory for the First Amendment rights of Freedom for Immigrants and immigrants in detention,” said Moez M. Kaba, from Hueston Hennigan, who served as lead counsel on the case along with Rajan Trehan and Ashley Artmann, also from Hueston Hennigan. “The government cannot simply silence expressions of dissent or critique from people speaking out against the conditions of confinement. In its shutdown of the hotline, the government violated this core tenet of free speech.”

In 2013, FFI created the free and confidential hotline for people in immigration detention to report abuse, find resources and bridge the divide between detained persons and their family and loved ones. Today, the National Immigration Detention Hotline remains a free and secure hotline for people in ICE detention across the country. When operational, the hotline receives up to 14,000 calls a month.

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Freedom for Immigrants is devoted to abolishing immigration detention, while ending the isolation of people currently suffering in this profit-driven system. Visit https://www.freedomforimmigrants.org/ to learn more.

If you are a person in detention, please dial 9233# from a facility phone, M-F 6am-8pm PDT/ 9am-11pm EDT, to connect to the National Immigration Detention Hotline. This line is free and unmonitored.