From Southern Poverty Law Center <[email protected]>
Subject Access Denied: SPLC and allies reject incomplete ICE report on counsel visits to detained immigrants
Date April 2, 2022 2:01 PM
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Access Denied: SPLC and allies reject incomplete ICE report on counsel
visits to detained immigrants

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Sarah Rich, Senior Supervising Attorney, Immigrant Justice | Read the
full piece here

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Friend,

After an unnecessary, prolonged wait in which she was denied access to
her phone and computer, a staff member for the Southern Poverty Law
Center was forced to leave a remote immigrant prison before visiting
with a detained client.

On a separate visit, a guard told the staff member - without
explanation - that she would have to return later, thus wasting
her time and delaying a necessary conversation for the client's
immigration case.

After the pandemic began and in-person visits became too dangerous,
SPLC staffers pivoted to requesting phone and video calls with their
clients.

But they experienced the same casual disregard for their
clients' rights to access to counsel as they had when they were
conducting mostly in-person visits.

In some cases, the guards didn't bother to inform the client
that he or she had a visit scheduled, even for time-sensitive legal
matters. What's more, immigrant prison officials failed to
schedule calls or even respond to SPLC staffers' requests for
contact with their clients.

Such incidents were not uncommon between October 2019 and September
2020 among the network of immigrant prisons across the Deep South. In
fact, the SPLC has documented more than two dozen instances of legal
visits and calls being canceled, denied or not facilitated during that
period.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) - the agency that
runs immigration prisons - claims it has no data showing that
any visits were denied or not facilitated.

Lies.

ICE recently submitted a report

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to Congress about access to counsel and due process in the detention
system during fiscal year 2020 (Oct. 1, 2019 to Sept. 30, 2020). The
report is riddled with omissions, half-truths and inaccuracies,
including the false claim that ICE never denied legal visits with
clients during that time.   

Today, the SPLC briefed House and Senate staffers on the report,
its misrepresentation of facts and the lack of counsel that detained
individuals are entitled to under law.

The agency's report was so deficient that the SPLC - along
with allies from the National Immigrant Justice Center
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, the American Immigration Council
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and the ACLU of Southern California
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- sent Congress a rebuttal memo

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outlining the systemic challenges that plague the immigration
detention system.

READ MORE

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In solidarity,

Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center

The SPLC is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond,
working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy,
strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of
all people.

Friend, will you make a gift to help the SPLC fight for
justice and equity in courts and combat white supremacy?

DONATE

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