Media Contact: rentralgo@freedomforimmigrants.org

Freedom for Immigrants today filed a lawsuit in federal court against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over retaliatory attacks on its hotline. The hotline, however, is far from the only FFI resource provided to immigrants in detention that is currently suspended by ICE. The lawsuit details a pattern of retaliation, specifically calling out the current suspension of the Etowah Visitation Project at the Etowah County Detention Center in Alabama.

Los Angeles, CA – December 10, 2019 – Today, Freedom for Immigrants (“FFI”) filed a federal lawsuit to reinstate its National Immigration Detention Hotline (the “Hotline”). As the complaint and corresponding motion for preliminary injunction detail, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) shut down the Hotline in retaliation for FFI’s exercise of First Amendment rights advocating on behalf of persons in immigration detention.

Gadsden, AL — In retaliation of a group of volunteer visits that was followed by a rally outside of the Etowah Detention Center in November, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Etowah County Sheriff's Office have suspended the Etowah Visitation Project. On behalf of the Etowah Visitation Project, Freedom for Immigrants issued a cease and desist letter today to ICE and the Etowah County Sheriff's Office.

The California Congressional delegation submitted a four-page letter to the acting heads of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)  and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Thursday, demanding transparency over its recent bids for four private prison facilities in the state. This recent attempt by ICE to expand immigration detention in California is in direct opposition of AB 32, a bill which would phase out the use of private, for-profit prisons and immigration detention centers beginning Jan. 1, 2020. ICE posted the first solicitation on the Federal Business Opportunities website on Oct. 16,  just five days after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law. 

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- Dozens of local activists, members of faith-based groups, attorneys, and loved ones of Cuban asylum seekers in detention staged a protest in front of the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana this weekend. The group gathered to draw attention to the indefinite and abusive detention of people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody and the alleged retaliation they face in detention for speaking out. According to firsthand accounts from two men detained and their families, on Oct. 16th a hunger strike of around 40 men protesting the death of another Cuban detainee and their own conditions and mistreatment was met with excessive force.

LOUISIANA — Dozens of family members who have loved ones detained at the Richwood Correctional Center will gather together -- some driving across the country -- in Monroe, Louisiana in front of the facility on November 2 to protest their indefinite and abusive detention.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — As we enter the month of November and the time of year associated with family gatherings and end-of-year celebrations, our hearts are with all the families who will remain separated this holiday season due to the U.S. immigration detention system.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- Today, Freedom for Immigrants published a report that documents the harrowing effects of immigration detention on mental health, emphasizing that this is not a recent phenomenon that has arisen under the Trump administration, nor one unique to the particularly inhumane conditions of detention in the United States.