Wyden, Merkley, Bonamici Join Dexter to Introduce Bill to Ensure Department of Homeland Security Detainees Can Speak to a Lawyer and Contact Their Families

Wyden, Merkley, Bonamici Join Dexter to Introduce Bill to Ensure Department of Homeland Security Detainees Can Speak to a Lawyer and Contact Their Families

Washington D.C.- U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, with U.S. Representative Suzanne Bonamici, said today they have joined Rep. Maxine Dexter's bicameral legislation to ensure the Department of Homeland Security allows noncitizens who have been detained to contact their legal counsel and families.

The Restoring Access to Detainees Act comes after months of credible reporting that ICE and CBP have deprived detainees - including children and longtime legal residents - of the ability to have access to 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.

"The Trump Administration's practices of snatching people off the street and 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," Wyden said. "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."

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

"It's unacceptable that many people detained by ICE have not been able to contact their families or an attorney," said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici. "I'm grateful to join Rep. Dexter and others in advocating for basic fairness for those who are caught up in this administration's brutal mass deportation effort."

"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 that people detained:

• Have the right to call their families to let them know where they are;

• Have an opportunity to speak confidentially with their legal counsel or to find competent legal counsel while in custody;

• Have an opportunity to communicate confidentially with existing oversight entities, if applicable.

The bill would restore a program from the first Trump administration that 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 Portland 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.

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 US 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.

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.

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.

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.

The bill was led by Dexter and U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn.

In addition to Wyden, Merkley and Bonamici, 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., 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., and Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and U.S. Representatives Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash, 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., LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii, Becca Balint, D-Vt., Emily Randall, D-Wash., Jesus "Chuy" García, D-Ill., Gil Cisneros, D-Calif., 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., and Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif.

Civil rights groups including the American Immigration Lawyers Association, National Immigration Law Center, National Immigrant Justice Center and Stop AAPI Hate 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.

The full text of the bill is here.