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These last several months have been a challenging time for everyone. Social visitation to those in detention has been suspended since mid-March. Now more than ever, it remains crucial that we continue monitoring and reporting the instances of abuse and neglect and hold constant pressure on lawmakers to take immediate action. Here are some highlights of our monitoring work over the past few months:
Civil Rights Complaints & Policy Advocacy:- After receiving hotline calls from Adelanto Detention Center about a toxic chemical disinfectant being used on individuals causing difficulty breathing and bloody noses, we filed a Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Complaint (CRCL) with our partners, Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice. Read more here.
- Along with our partners at Friends of Miami-Dade Detainees, we also filed a CRCL complaint due to the use of a toxic chemical disinfectant at Glades County Jail in Florida. Read it here.
- We stood alongside partners in calling on ICE to reduce its detention levels. FFI used its biweekly reports on COVID-19 to help push for the HEROES Act COVID-19 relief legislation, which passed the House of Representatives on May 15th, 2020. Learn more about our Congressional testimony here.
National Immigration Hotline:
Due to the suspension of social visitation, our national hotline is one of the only connections to the outside for those in detention. Since our hotline has been restored by a Federal Judge in February 2020, we have received an increasing number of calls.- An average of 150 calls per day, over 4,000 calls received per month, reporting conditions of abuse and neglect.
Documenting & Reporting Abuses:
As a response to COVID-19, in early April we launched a real-time interactive map documenting instances of abuses. Reports have included:- Inadequate medical responses across at least 71 detention facilities
- Reports of sanitary & hygiene issues across 57 detention facilities
- Quarantines & isolations reported across 41 facilities
- Reports of retaliation against organizers in 32 detention facilities
You can check out our map here and review condition reports. |
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| BUILDING A WORLD WITHOUT DETENTION |
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Additionally, we have been working diligently to build and model a world without immigration detention and have been posting bonds to ensure those who are at higher risk for COVID-19 can get safely released. With your support, from January 2020-June 2020, we secured the freedom of 60 individuals by posting over $300,000 worth of immigration bonds.
A very special thank you to Boston Immigration Justice Accompaniment Network and Minnesota Freedom Fund, who graciously assisted us during this challenging time of posting bond. Seeing the increased collaboration and mutual aid happening all over the country right now has been inspiring. This really goes to show the strength in numbers.
We have also been making good use of our post release safe house in Louisiana, which has hosted 59 people from over 31 different countries. This safe house is one of the only places in the state of Louisiana dedicated to providing a consistent form of shelter for immigrants released during COVID-19. |
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Layla Razavi joins us as our first Deputy Executive Director. She brings over 15 years experience in public policy and immigrant rights.
Prior to FFI, she served as Policy Director at the California Immigrant Policy Center where she worked as part of the legal team that helped draft, pass, and monitor implementation of the nation’s strongest anti-enforcement legislation, commonly known as California’s “sanctuary” law. Layla also served as National Advocacy & Policy Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union where she helped secure significant legislative victories in states with unfavorable political climates.
Her family’s immigration story, like that of many immigrant families, was born of necessity. Layla’s parents—who were active in the student movement in Iran—were studying abroad in the U.S. when the revolution occurred, leaving them afraid to return for fear of political persecution. She was born in San Diego, and as more of her relatives arrived, her family eventually put down roots in California.
Layla received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of California, Davis School of Law where she was nominated for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Service Award. |
Tania Mattos joins us as the Policy & Northeast Monitoring Manager, after 13 years of working as an immigrant and worker rights organizer and advocate at an international, national and local level. Most recently, she worked for five years at an immigration legal direct services organization as the Education and Outreach Director in NYC.
She also is co-founder of Queens Neighborhoods United, a grassroots anti-gentrification collective that fights against undemocratic use of land, police abuse, and ICE in the immigrant welcoming borough of Queens, NY. She has received several awards from the New York City Council for her work in the Latinx and immigrant community, and has been profiled in several national and New York City wide publications.
Tania was a DACA recipient from 2012 to 2019. She is a proud immigrant who was born in La Paz, Bolivia and was raised in Jackson Heights, Queens. She credits her upbringing and culture for her passion to organize, build leadership and work towards a vision of freedom for all immigrant and marginalized communities. |
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