MURPHY, DEXTER, 58 DEMOCRATS INTRODUCE BICAMERAL BILL TO ENSURE DHS DETAINEES CAN SPEAK TO A LAWYER, CONTACT THEIR FAMILIES

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and U.S. Representative Maxine Dexter, M.D. (D-Ore.-03) on Friday led 58 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.

"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 bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and U.S. Representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), Dave Min (D-Calif.), Nellie Pou (D-N.J.), Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii), Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Emily Randall (D-Wash.), Jesús "Chuy" García (D-Ill.), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), Yvette D. Clarke (D-N.Y.), Laura Friedman (D-Calif.), Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), Julie Johnson (D-Texas), Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), Robin Kelley (D-Ill.), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.), Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas), Kelly Morrison (D-Minn.), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), and Derek Tran (D-Calif.).

"The Trump Administration's practices of snatching people off the street, denying them access to lawyers or calls to family is cruel, unnecessary, and puts U.S. citizens and lawfully present immigrants at risk of wrongful detention and deportation. The Restoring Access to Detainees Act will go a long way toward ensuring our country can enforce immigration laws without throwing away due process rights," said Sen. Wyden.

"Depriving those detained of access to legal counsel is illegal, unconstitutional, and un-American," said Senator Merkley. "The Trump Administration must immediately restore legal access and family communication to detainees!"

"Every noncitizen should be able to call their family and access legal representation while in detention," said Senator Padilla. "Yet under Donald Trump, ICE and CBP have repeatedly denied detained individuals due process or the ability to talk to a lawyer, even disappearing them to other countries without letting them alert their families. Our bill would restore commonsense, humane protections for noncitizens in detention that were established during the first Trump Administration to ensure the basic dignity of being able to contact legal counsel or their families."

"As the Trump administration continues to indiscriminately detain and deport noncitizens without due process, this bill is more important than ever. Families deserve to know where their loved ones are and detained immigrants should be able to access an attorney. I will keep pushing for Congress to pass this legislation," said Senator Schiff.

"Despite President Trump's utter contempt for the rule of law, every person in this country is entitled to due process and dignity. I am proud to fight for this legislation, which would restore telephone service for detainees to speak with legal counsel and maintain communication with their families. Our nation is built on the principle that every person may have liberty and justice - we won't let President Trump strip that away," said Senator Alsobrooks.

"Due process is a fundamental right for everyone in America. Yet the Trump administration has repeatedly violated that right by cruelly detaining people and denying them contact with their families or legal counsel," said Senator Luján. "This blatant disregard for basic rights is unacceptable and un-American. That's why I'm fighting to pass legislation to ensure that people in federal custody have the right to speak with their families and attorneys."

"Our Constitution guarantees everyone in America the right to due process - a right that this Administration has disregarded for countless people they have detained in pursuit of their indiscriminate mass deportation agenda. Our immigration laws should be enforced humanely and by the book - and this legislation will help ensure that," said Senator Van Hollen.

"New Jerseyans have watched in horror as the Trump Administration has raided homes, workplaces, schools, and places of worship to detain noncitizens who pose no threat to public safety," said Senator Booker. "Once detained, the Administration routinely transfers individuals far from their homes and communities, cutting them off from family support and legal representation. This strips detainees of their most basic rights and isolates them from the outside world. The least our government can do is ensure that those torn from their families are able to contact their loved ones and legal counsel. I am proud to cosponsor this commonsense bill, which restores a measure of due process and guarantees access to communication for all people in detention."

"ICE is using alarming tactics to satisfy Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda," said Senator Markey. "ICE agents are arresting people and moving them to detention centers far away from their communities. Immigrant families are left without answers, desperate to know where their loved ones have been taken. This important legislation would ensure people in immigration detention are able to contact their family members and attorneys as they fight deportation. We must protect the rights of our immigrant communities."

"It's inhumane for the Trump administration to snatch people off the street and deny them access to their lawyers and families," said Senator Warren. "Congress needs to stand up and fight to ensure everyone has due process protections."

Civil rights groups including the American Immigration Lawyers Association, National Immigration Law Center, National Immigrant Justice Center, Stop AAPI Hate, and New Haven Legal Assistance Association have endorsed The Restoring Access to Detainees Act:

"Nothing is more vital to ensuring a fair day in court than ensuring access to legal counsel for people deprived of their liberty who are trying to understand complex immigration laws. The 'Restoring Access to Detainees Act' is exactly the kind of good government reform that not only makes the immigration system more fair but also improves the courts' efficiency. The American Immigration Lawyers Association applauds Senator Murphy and his cosponsors for leading the way," said Gregory Z. Chen, Esq., Senior Director of Government Relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

"This bill provides urgently needed due process protections to Connecticut residents in DHS custody," said Leanne Gale, an immigration attorney at the New Haven Legal Assistance Association, which provides free legal services to low-income immigrants across Connecticut. "When our clients and community members are detained by ICE, they are transferred to detention facilities out-of-state with limited opportunities to speak to an attorney. For instance, at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, where many Connecticut residents are detained, the only way to arrange a legal call with our clients is through a web-platform known as JurisLink at the exorbitant cost of $49.99 per half hour. Otherwise, we are forced to take a six-hour roundtrip from New Haven to Plymouth to speak with our clients. These barriers to legal access are unacceptable. We welcome this critical step towards ensuring that all people detained by DHS are able to exercise their due process right to legal counsel."

The Restoring Access to Detainees Act would ensure:

1. People detained, or transferred to a new facility, have the right to call their families to let them know where they are;

2. People detained have an opportunity to speak confidentially with their legal counsel or to find competent legal counsel while in custody;

3. People detained have an opportunity to communicate confidentially with existing oversight entities, if applicable; and

4. 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:

1. 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.

2. 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 US in June.

3. Jackie Merlos, a 44-year-old mother with a U-deferred 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.

4. 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.

5. Luis Peralta, who has lived in the US 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.

6. George Retes, a US 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

The full text of the bill is available HERE. A one-pager for the bill is available HERE.

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