Torres v. Noem settlement ensures telephone, visit, and mail access for people in Adelanto
RIVERSIDE – Today, individuals who were detained at the Adelanto Detention Facility settled their longstanding case against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the GEO Group, ensuring that free, confidential legal phone calls will occur for individuals detained at the facility, in addition to protecting their access to counsel.
The case, initially filed in 2018, challenged restrictions to telephone access put in place by ICE and GEO, the private prison company that runs Adelanto.
“Confidential legal calls are a critical lifeline for people in immigration detention to win their freedom and fight against their deportations – not to mention, a right protected by the Constitution,” said Eva Bitran, director of immigrants’ rights for the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. “Today’s settlement safeguarding access to counsel is all the more critical in light of ICE’s vast, unconstitutional raids throughout Southern California, which have resulted in a population boom at Adelanto.”
The settlement institutes a process by which free confidential legal calls can be arranged, including outside regular telephone hours. Individuals at Adelanto will also be allowed to make unrecorded, unmonitored phone calls from their housing units.
“We’re delighted to reach a settlement that will make it easier for our clients to access the legal counsel they are entitled to,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, president and CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), a plaintiff in the case. “GEO was profiteering on the backs of imprisoned people, which prevented them from exercising their rights and disabled them from regaining their freedom. We stand ready to assist those detained in Adelanto, many of whom were victims of recent warrantless arrests, so that they have a fighting chance in court.”
Per the agreement, the court will supervise implementation of the settlement for 24 months.
"With the unprecedented surge in enforcement funding from Congress, the Trump administration intends to escalate mass deportations, trampling the Constitutional guarantees of due process along the way,” said Jeff Joseph, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), a plaintiff in the case. “There can be no fair hearing unless people in detention who are facing deportation have adequate access to counsel. This settlement affirms the principle that people in immigration detention—who are often held in remote facilities—must be able to call and have meaningful contact with their attorneys.”
The plaintiffs were represented by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Stanford Law School, and Sidley Austin LLP.
“The settlement ensures legal visits in person will continue to be permitted at any time, protects the privacy of legal mail, and arranges for the accurate delivery of telephone messages for people detained,” said Jayashri Srikantiah, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Stanford Law School.
Read the settlement: https://www.aclusocal.org/sites/default/files/final_signed_settlement_agreement_and_release.pdf