OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 2:20 PM PST – Sat. August 24, 2019
ICE is defending its decision to remove a toll-free hotline from its migrant detention center phone system.
Migrants are detained in a tented, air-conditioned cage at a Border Patrol detention facility in Tornillo, Texas, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019. Immigration officials say that with less detainees and more detention space, migrants apprehended along the U.S.-Mexico border won’t be subject to the squalid, overcrowded conditions criticized earlier this year. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
According to reports, the Freedom for Immigrants hotline was removed earlier this month.
ICE effectively blocked the phone number from being dialed or received on detention centers phones, which are shared between migrants.
The move came after the popular Netflix show, Orange is the New Black aired the contact information for the California-based advocacy group in several of their episodes.
ICE officials have stated three-way calling and call forwarding are strictly prohibited, and, pro bono organizations found violating these rules will “be removed from the platform.”
