ICE’s action comes as people inside and outside detention protest worsening conditions at California facilities
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 31, 2024
PRESS CONTACT: Jessie Seyfer, public relations officer | (628) 271-9800 | San Francisco Public Defender’s Office | pdr-mediarelations@sfgov.org
**PRESS RELEASE**
Detained Individuals, Immigrant Advocates Condemn ICE Ending Free Legal Phone Calls Program
ICE’s action comes as people inside and outside detention protest worsening conditions at California facilities
SAN FRANCISCO — Immigrant rights advocates are decrying a decision by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—that goes into effect tomorrow, Aug. 1—to end a free phone call program that has been in effect for many years. Starting tomorrow, ICE officials have said they are cutting off detainees’ access to free calls to attorneys that had been agreed to in ICE’s settlement of a 2016 ACLU lawsuit known as Lyon v. ICE. The decision by ICE to abruptly shut down this program comes as many individuals detained at the Golden State Annex and Mesa Verde immigrant detention centers in McFarland and Bakersfield, Calif., respectively, have stepped up their protests of horrible conditions at the centers.
“Our detained brothers and sisters are now forced to pay a predatory and high cost for phone calls,” said Jose Ruben Hernandez Gomez, who was previously detained at Mesa Verde and who launched a 21-day hunger strike in 2023 to protest conditions at the ICE facilities. Hernandez Gomez is a client of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office Immigration Unit and has been a legal permanent resident of the U.S. since he was a toddler. “If it wasn’t for these free legal calls when I was in detention, I know for a fact that I would not be here. Were it not for the ability to reach attorneys, I would not have been able to challenge deportation proceedings and would have been deported to a country where I would have faced great harm and even death.”
(Note: Photos of Hernandez Gomez speaking today at a rally in support of the labor protesters can be downloaded here.)
On July 1, 59 detained individuals at the Golden State Annex relaunched a work stoppage to protest stolen wages, termination of the free phone calls, worsening living and working conditions, ongoing retaliation and prolonged detention at the facilities. Detained workers at these for-profit facilities are paid just $1 a day to maintain the facility while they are frequently given spoiled food and deprived of hygiene products, sanitary conditions and basic medical care.
For almost a decade, noncitizens detained by ICE in California’s Central Valley have been able to call their pro bono attorneys for free. This fundamental right—the ability to consult with an attorney from a remote detention center regardless of your financial resources—was hard fought and hard won. The Lyon v. ICE case, filed by the ACLU on behalf of California ICE detainees, alleged that ICE’s restrictive phone access policies violated federal law and the U.S. Constitution. ICE settled the case and established a straightforward system to allow pro bono attorneys—defined as any attorney who undertakes pro bono work as part of their practice—to request a direct-dial “pin” (called a “Lyon pin”) from ICE. Clients and prospective clients could then call pro bono attorneys directly without incurring a charge. In 2020, ICE supplemented the free calls available through Lyon pins with a COVID-era program allotting people in custody nationwide 520 minutes of free phone calls to any recipient, including attorneys (the 520 Free Minute Program). Attorneys could register to ensure that calls to them through the 520 Free Minute program were unmonitored. Now ICE is severing that lifeline, ending the Lyon calls. It also ended the 520 Free Minute Program in June.
“Before our lawsuit secured free legal phone calls for immigrants in ICE detention facilities, it was practically impossible for people to consult with an attorney or gather evidence to support their cases, including asylum claims,” said Bree Bernwanger, an attorney with the ACLU of Northern California. “We’re shocked that ICE would abruptly cut off free legal calls without explaining how it will meet its constitutional obligations to provide detained immigrants with access to counsel.”
“ICE locks people away in civil detention facilities, where people experience abuse and neglect. It obstructs people’s attempts to seek release from their unjustified civil detention. ICE allows private prison contractors to force detained people to work for $1 per day. And now, ICE is cutting the free lines between detained people who seek help from pro bono attorneys to do something about their inhumane conditions,” said Victoria Petty, staff attorney, Immigration Justice at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCRSF). “Detained people have the right to speak up, including through counsel.”
“Confidential, free phone calls are a lifeline for immigrants in detention,” said Lisa Knox, co-executive director with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice. “They are one of the few ways they can access legal services and share information about the human rights violations rampant in detention, without fear of retaliation.”
ICE has told advocates that only calls to a limited list of legal service providers who have been approved by the immigration court will be free. But the list of approved providers excludes a vast range of necessary pro bono legal services from eligibility. For instance, providers on the list must offer legal advice related to deportation proceedings, but LCCRSF does not provide such services. Instead, LCCRSF advises and represents detained individuals in cases challenging their detention by ICE as well as the conditions in the detention facilities. Even those who might qualify must submit an application, face a months-long waiting period, and undergo a notice and comment process, before being added.
“ICE’s purposeful erosion of detained individuals’ fundamental and Constitutional rights is shameful,” said elected San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju. “We will continue to challenge injustices like these and we remain inspired by the many individuals inside and outside detention who fight for immigrants’ human rights.”
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