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 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, the American Immigration Council and the ACLU of Southern California – sent Congress a rebuttal memo outlining the systemic challenges that plague the immigration detention system.

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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?