The Detention Watch Network released a press release last week regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cutting access to free phone calls for individuals in immigration detentions. According to the release, it was reported that 16 facilities throughout the U.S. lost free phone access with plans to end the free phone program entirely. This development has been confirmed by ICE.
The free phone program started during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ever Starling Oropeza Paz, who is currently detained at Golden State Annex in McFarland said this is another “injustice perpetrated” to take away their process rights by taking away their communication with their loved ones and attorneys. “$25,000,000 of taxpayer funds were allotted to Golden State Annex for unused beds that can easily be used to reinstate the free phone calls to a population of detained people here that is already at a huge financial disadvantage. Sadly, we here are forced to work for one dollar a day just to be able to purchase hygiene items from the commissary,” Paz said in the release.
Oscar Ernesto Lopez Santos, who is also detained at Golden State Annex said the population at Golden State are upset that their 520 monthly free minutes are being taken away and they count on these free phone calls to reach out family members back in their home country. “International calls are charged 35 cents a minute. Most of the population here does not have family that can afford to pay these high prices. This is a call for help to reinstate the free calls program due to the severe impact it has caused in our being able to call our families or even our attorneys,” Santos said in the release.
Rosa Lopez, senior policy advocate and organizer at the Bakersfield American Civil Liberties Union Foundation (ACLU) office, told Kern Sol News that the ending of this free service will have serious consequences for people in the centers, specifically the people in Kern County. “We’re [ACLU] strategizing with partners across the state. To see what we can do through advocacy and through the rapid response network of current partners in that space are thinking through how to provide emergency fund support,” Lopez commented.
Facilities that have lost the free phone access are:
- Moshannon Valley Detention Center, Pennsylvania
- Orange County Jail, New York
- Batavia Service Processing Center, New York
- Elizabeth Detention Center, New Jersey
- Stewart Detention Center, Georgia
- Golden State Annex, California
- Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center, California
- Otay Mesa Detention Center, California
- El Valle Detention Facility, Texas
- Tacoma Northwest Detention Center, Washington
- Torrance Detention Center, New Mexico
- Eloy Detention Center, Arizona
- Winn Correctional Center, Louisiana
- Richwood Correctional Center, Louisiana
- Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, Louisiana
- River Correctional Center, Louisiana
“Cutting off free phone access, reducing the amount of time that people can obtain legal support before initial asylum screenings, and efforts to expand detention capacity illustrate the broad scale changes the agency is making to make an irreparably cruel system more unbearable and to deport as many people as quickly as possible,” Advocacy Director of Detention Watch Network, Setareh Ghandehari said in the release.
