ICE detention center transparency bill heads to governor
The California Legislature this week passed the Detention Facility Transparency Act, an important public records bill now headed to the governor’s desk.
SB 423, authored by state Sen. Lena Gonzalez and co-sponsored by our partners at the First Amendment Coalition, is aimed at shedding light on the notoriously opaque system of privately-run immigration detention centers that, in California, hold thousands of people on any given day. It requires local agencies to disclose 911 calls and related records from detention facilities across the state, records that journalists too often are told they cannot access in California.
Reporting in CalMatters underscored the urgent need when journalists uncovered several reports of sexual assaults at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego.
Recent reporting from states including Texas and Florida, where emergency call records are more easily available to the public, shows why this legislation is so critical in California. ProPublica published audio of 911 calls from Camp East Montana in El Paso, offering “a glimpse of unfolding crises faced by those locked inside, with few ways to get help.” You can read that story and listen to the audio here: Listen to 911 Calls From Inside an Immigration Detention Center: “We Just Need to Take Him to the Hospital.”
SPJ NorCal joined more than one dozen local and national press groups supporting SB 423. We are hopeful Gov. Gavin Newsom will sign SB 423. He has until Sept. 30 to act.
READ MORE ABOUT SB 423
- LETTER | Letter to lawmakers by FAC’s Ginny LaRoe and Paloma Esquivel, joined by all California SPJ chapters and national
- CalMatters | Data from 911 calls at ICE detention centers must be released under bill going to Gov. Newsom
- Sacramento Bee | 3 bills to regulate immigration detention approved by Legislature, sent to Newsom
- KQED | As ICE Custody Deaths Rise, State Bill Would Force Release of 911 Call Data
- KVCR | IE Latino Voices: Paloma Esquivel on why it’s hard to get information from ICE detention centers
— Annie Cappetta, Co-Chair of SPJ CenCal Satellite Chapter’s Advocacy Committee