U.S. Government Shuts Down Immigration Detention Hotline Featured on “Orange Is the New Black”
As previously mentioned on the ImmigrationProf blog, private immigrant detention was one of the major plot lines in the finale season of the Netflix show Orange is the New Black. This season, the private company running the Litchfield prison at the center of the prison drama/tragicomedy decided to diversify into immigrant detention. The season shows the devastating human impacts of immigrant detention and immigration enforcement.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that the U.S. government shut down a national hotline for detained immigrants less than two weeks after it was featured in the final season of Orange Is the New Black.
“ICE is attempting to silence its critics and block people in immigration detention from connecting with communities on the outside,” Christina Fialho, an attorney and the co-founder/executive director for Freedom for Immigrants, said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s disappointing but not unexpected that Trump’s ICE would engage in such cruel and undemocratic behavior.”
The National Immigration Detention Hotline, which was name-checked on OITNB, has been a free and confidential resource offering legal assistance to people who are in immigration detention since 2013. The hotline was shut down on August 7, according to the group, echoing a plotline from the seventh and final season of OITNB.
The final season, which was released on July 26,
“tackled the current immigration crisis when the show’s fictional private prison ventured into immigration detention centers. The streaming giant’s most-popular series brought viewers inside a carefully researched detention center to show how some of the main inmates helped detainees by sharing the number to the hotline. `You gotta be careful, though. Apparently as soon as Big Brother figures out you’re using the hotline, they shut it down,’ inmate Gloria Mendoza (Selenis Leyva) warns to detainee Maritza Ramos (Diane Guerrero).”
During the finale season, Maritza discovered that she was aa noncitizen and was removed from the country. Claiming ineffective assistance of counsel in a agreeing to a plea deal for her role in a prison riot, Blanca resisted removal and was released from detention. The season also also told the heartbreaking stories of a Salvadoran immigrant mother (Carla) who was separated from her children and a Muslim woman (Shani) who had fled her home country after suffering female genital mutilation.
Here is a quick summary of the immigration angles of the final season of Orange is the New Black. Readers may look for clips of the show to use in immigration classes.
KJ