National Immigration Detention Hotline
About the Hotline
Human connection lies at the core of our mission to create a future free of cages in which all people can live freely and thrive. FFI’s National Immigration Detention Hotline — the nation’s largest free and unmonitored immigration detention hotline — is crucial to our work of building community and collective power with people inside detention centers.
Our team of highly-trained, multilingual, and compassionate volunteers from across the country answer hundreds of calls each month from people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). We support the immediate needs of detained immigrants while strengthening long-term relationship building in order to reinforce long-term internal organizing efforts.
Immigration detention is deliberately cruel and isolating by design. Our team helps detained people feel less alone, navigate the overly complex and abusive immigration system, and further develop their own leadership and advocacy:
We connect people with their loved ones on the outside; support internal organizing efforts like mass labor and hunger strikes; provide medical, legal, and other vital resources; and document abuse and file complaints;
Our inside-outside organizing efforts include leadership development; training and resource sharing; and facilitating detained and formerly detained leaders’ involvement with community, media, and political advocacy such as supporting visits to the offices of elected officials.
Launched in 2013, the hotline has received tens of thousands of calls from more than 200 different detention facilities nationwide and from individuals from 148 countries speaking 80 different languages. Learn more about the history of the hotline.
How to Use
The National Immigration Detention Hotline is available inside every Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility. This includes privately-operated detention facilities, county jails contracted with ICE, and Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and other federal facilities detaining people for ICE.
To access the hotline, please dial 9233# from a facility phone.
The FFI Hotline is open between 8am-8pm PT / 11am-11pm ET every Monday - Friday, unless otherwise noted on this web page and on FFI social media channels (@migrantfreedom).
Our dedicated hotline volunteer team is ready to assist you. Multilingual volunteers are available to speak in many different languages including Spanish, French, Haitian Kreyol, Russian, and others.
If the phone rings and goes to voicemail, it is likely because we are on the phone with another caller. We encourage you to continue to call until you are able to connect with a volunteer. Remember, it's free to call the FFI hotline!
Frequently Asked Questions
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We strive to support you no matter what language you speak. Our team is made up of volunteers who speak many different languages. The main languages serviced on the hotline are Spanish, Haitian Kreyol, French, and English, but dozens of other languages are also supported. If you call the hotline and are connected to a volunteer who does not speak your language, our team will do our best to provide you with a specified time to call back so that we may assist you in your language.
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If you can’t connect the first time, it’s possible it is because the lines are busy. We encourage you to try calling back as many times as it takes to connect with a volunteer. Remember, it's free to call the hotline!
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The FFI National Immigration Detention Hotline should be available in every ICE detention facility. If it appears the hotline is not accessible in a particular detention facility, please report the issue by submitting this form. If you are inside detention, you can write to us and let us know:
Freedom for Immigrants
440 N Barranca Ave #6382
Covina, CA 91723
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FFI’s National Immigration Detention Hotline is unmonitored, meaning ICE and detention officials cannot legally listen to your calls to the hotline.
At FFI, we care deeply about your and your loved ones’ safety and privacy. We take your data security very seriously. Major tech companies often sell or share their users’ data with ICE, which is why FFI stores your information on a database and server that are both owned by FFI. This means no one is able to access the details you share with us other than our own team members.
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As the Trump administration ramps up its arrests and detentions, more of our community members are disappearing in detention. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fails to update its databases regularly, making it extraordinarily hard for family members and attorneys to find loved ones. Talk to your family and make a plan to memorize the hotline number (9233#) so that if you are detained, you can make a free call to us. When you call our hotline, our team can help notify your loved ones of your whereabouts.
Artist: Erikson Martinez, Monitoring Fellow with Immigrant Action Alliance
What We Do
Our volunteer team is made up of passionate and skilled advocates who are ready to assist you with a range of supports and services — from legal referrals, to basic needs like commissary funds, emotional support, and everything in between.
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We can help you contact your family on the outside and support you with communication by sending text updates to your family members and loved ones. Since private telecommunications corporations charge exorbitant rates for phone and video calls, our volunteers can help you avoid these expenses by sharing important updates with your loved ones.
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Our team has consulted medical and legal experts to develop key resources and guides to help you navigate your time in detention. Topics include how to safely engage in a hunger strike, mental health exercises, pro-se legal guides, and other materials.
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Our volunteers can connect you with other members of the FFI team to help amplify your organizing and advocacy and boost your demands through the media and FFI’s social media.
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FFI’s hotline makes it easier for people in detention to report abuse without fear of government retaliation. Hotline volunteers help individuals document and report abuse, and in some cases file federal civil rights complaints. Remember, the FFI hotline is unmonitored, so we provide a safe way for you to report abuse or neglect from inside detention.
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Because people in detention are often given expired, moldy, or inadequate amounts of food, many rely on commissary donations to survive in detention. Our volunteers help connect you to commissary funds.
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Our volunteers share the contact information of legal organizations that may be able to assist you based on the facility you are detained in or your home city.
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We know immigration detention is purposefully isolating and is one of the hardest moments of people’s lives. We connect callers to letter writing and local visitation groups to help break through ICE’s intentional isolation.
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Our volunteers can help you submit a bond fund request to local and national bond fund groups.
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Our volunteers can help support your legal case by writing an official letter of support.
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Our team can help you share your story by connecting you with the media or by working with FFI’s own storytelling platform, IMMPrint.
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Many local organizations — like El Refugio in Georgia and Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention (LA-AID) — do incredible work in otherwise isolated places. Our volunteers can help connect you to advocates working on the ground at the detention center you are detained in.
Volunteer With Us
The work of FFI’s hotline wouldn’t be possible without our passionate team of volunteers who devote their time, skills, and compassion to each and every hotline shift. Learn more about volunteering with the National Immigration Detention Hotline.
Share FFI hotline information with your loved ones:
Questions? Please email hotline@freedomforimmigrants.org