Murray, Murphy, Dexter, Colleagues Introduce Bicameral Bill to Ensure DHS Detainees Can Speak to a Lawyer, Contact their Families

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Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), Representative Maxine Dexter (D, OR-03), and 47 of their Senate and House colleagues in introducing the Restoring Access to Detainees Act, a bill to ensure the Department of Homeland Security allows noncitizens who have been detained to contact their legal counsel and families. The bill comes after months of credible reporting that ICE and CBP have deprived detainees-including children and longtime legal residents-of the ability to access a lawyer, sometimes for months at a time. People have also reportedly been taken into custody and, in some cases, transferred to facilities in other countries, without being allowed to contact their families.

"While our immigration enforcement should be focused on deporting violent or dangerous criminals, this administration is instead focused on locking up American citizens and terrorizing law-abiding immigrants-it's morally bankrupt and all of us should be outraged at this abuse of our taxpayer dollars. Everyone detained in this country has the right to access a lawyer and contact their families, regardless of their immigration status," said Senator Murray. "It is sickening that DHS has chosen to deprive detainees-including children-of the opportunity to pursue legal counsel or let their worried families know why they won't be coming home at night. This bill is an important step toward ensuring due process for our own citizens and everyone who calls America home-we're talking about basic human rights here and America must do better."

"For months now, Americans have watched the horrific videos of CBP and ICE agents violently snatching people off the street at schools, workplaces, and grocery stores. But what happens after people are taken into custody is equally disturbing," said Senator Murphy. "DHS has repeatedly refused to allow people to contact their families and lawyers, traumatizing children and families who are left searching for answers when their loved one suddenly misses after-school pickup or just doesn't come home for dinner. It's heartless and deeply un-American. This bill protects the basic right of people in this country to call their family - which often includes American citizens - when they are taken into custody. DHS has proven time and again they cannot be trusted to follow basic humanitarian principles, and it's on Congress to step in and hold them accountable."

"I saw with my own eyes the reality of Trump's immigration system: a mother and her four U.S. citizen children disappeared and locked in a windowless cell unable to contact a lawyer or their loved ones. The inhumanity was staggering. If we allow this to continue, we will lose who we are," said Representative Dexter. "I'm proud to join Senator Chris Murphy in defending the simple truth that access to legal counsel and communication with loved ones isn't a luxury, it is a fundamental human right."

The Restoring Access to Detainees Act would ensure:

• People detained, or transferred to a new facility, have the right to call their families to let them know where they are;
• People detained have an opportunity to speak confidentially with their legal counsel or to find competent legal counsel while in custody;
• People detained have an opportunity to communicate confidentially with existing oversight entities, if applicable; and
• The restoration of a program from the first Trump Administration which established a process for noncitizens to call their families while they are in deportation proceedings.

Notable instances of the Trump Administration cutting off detainees from legal counsel include:

• Jackie Merlos, a 44-year-old mother with a U-visa and her four U.S. citizen children, who were detained for weeks in a windowless cell without access to legal counsel and unable to contact family or friends.
• Luis Peralta, who has lived in the U.S. since he was a child, was detained and transferred from Miami to Tacoma. Officers denied him access to his personal documents, leaving him unable to contact his family or attorney.
• Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old Columbia University graduate and U.S. permanent resident, was arrested without a warrant and transferred across three states - from New Jersey to New York to Louisiana - where he spent more than three months in a detention center with limited access to legal counsel.
• Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old from El Salvador living in Maryland, was arrested without a warrant and detained in Texas. Days later, he called his wife to tell her that he was being sent to El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT - which turned out to be the last time his family heard from him until his return to the U.S. in June.
• A 13-year-old Brazilian national was arrested in Everett, MA and transferred to a Virginia detention center. His family and lawyers were left in the dark for days about his location or the reason for his arrest.
• George Retes, a U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE agents and held incommunicado, leaving him unable to contact his family - who only learned what happened to him after his release.
• Ramon Eduardo Contreras-Hernandez was denied access to legal representation after being transferred from an ICE detention center to a county jail, cutting him off from information about his own case.
• A ProPublica investigation found that more than 20 U.S. citizens have reported being detained for over a day without being able to call their loved ones or an attorney.
• Civil rights attorneys representing detainees in "Alligator Alcatraz" filed for a temporary restraining order against the detention center, citing systemic violations of detainees' constitutional rights to legal representation and due process.

In addition to Senators Murray and Murphy, and Congresswoman Dexter, the bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Edward Markey (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Peter Welch (D-VT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and U.S. Representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Judy Chu (D-CA), Salud Carbajal (D-CA), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Rick Larsen (D-WA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Dave Min (D-CA), Nellie Pou (D-NJ), LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), Jill Tokuda (D-HI), Becca Balint (D-VT), Emily Randall (D-WA), Jesus "Chuy" García (D-IL), Gil Cisneros (D-CA), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY), Laura Friedman (D-CA), Frederica Wilson (D-FL), Julie Johnson (D-TX), Nikema Williams (D-GA), Robin Kelley (D-IL), and Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA).

The full text of the bill is available HERE.

A one-pager for the bill is available HERE.

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