'Orange Is The New Black' featured an immigrant detention hotline. ICE shut it down, groups say.

[Tripper11]

Aug. 23, 2019, 1:15 PM PDT / Updated Aug. 23, 2019, 2:58 PM PDT
By Nicole Acevedo
A toll-free hotline designed to help immigrants in detention centers get legal counsel was shut down by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the number was mentioned in the acclaimed Netflix series "Orange Is The New Black," according to the California-based group that runs it.

The Freedom for Immigrants’ National Immigration Detention Hotline has been an available resource to people in immigration detention since 2013, but it was shut down on Aug. 7, about two weeks after the premiere of the last season of "Orange Is The New Black," the organization said in a press release.

The hotline was featured in various episodes. After two longtime characters, "Blanca" and "Maritza," end up in deportation proceedings, they learn that immigrants don’t have the right to a free phone call after they are detained. Without access to money, both characters learn about the Freedom for Immigrants hotline and start passing out the number to others in the facility.

“The timing of the shutdown is deeply concerning. Freedom for Immigrants is being targeted for exposing abuses in detention and amplifying the stories of people suffering in the system” said Christina Fialho, an attorney and executive director of Freedom for Immigrants, in a statement.

MORE AT LINK

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/orange-new-black-featured-immigrant-detention-hotline-ice-shut-it-n1045906

[TreasonousBastard]

1. I was wondering how they could do this Stalinesque thing...

but it seems they provide the phones.

From the link:

An ICE official told NBC News in a statement that "all ICE facilities provide detainees with reasonable and equitable access to telephones."

Detainees are allowed to "make free calls to an ICE-approved list of free legal service providers for the purpose of obtaining initial legal representation," but three-way calling and call forwarding are "strictly prohibited," ICE said.

While the agency did not specifically comment on the termination of Freedom for Immigrants' hotline, an ICE official said that pro bono organizations found to be violating their telephone rules "may be removed from the platform."

"However, removal from this platform in no way limits the ability of an ICE detainee to phone such an organization directly should the detainee wish to do so," the agency added.

Still does not make it right. They are not prisoners, but they are subject to prison rules.