{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murray.senate.gov/murray-murphy-dexter-colleagues-introduce-bicameral-bill-to-ensure-dhs-detainees-can-speak-to-a-lawyer-contact-their-families/", "Murray, Murphy, Dexter, Colleagues Introduce Bicameral Bill to Ensure DHS Detainees Can Speak to a Lawyer, Contact their Families", "2025-11-07", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "WA", "Patty Murray", "M001111", "www.murray.senate.gov", "murray", "https://www.murray.senate.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "ICYMI: Senator Murray Leads Colleagues in Reintroducing Legislation to Prevent the Shackling and Mistreatment of Pregnant Women in ICE and CBP Custody\n\nICYMI: Murray, Durbin, Senate Democrats Urge President Trump to Abandon Use Of Family Detention\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), Representative Maxine Dexter (D, OR-03), and 47 of their Senate and House colleagues in introducing the Restoring Access to Detainees Act, a bill to ensure the Department of Homeland Security allows noncitizens who have been detained to contact their legal counsel and families. The bill comes after months of credible reporting that ICE and CBP have deprived detainees\u2014including children and longtime legal residents\u2014of the ability to access a lawyer, sometimes for months at a time. People have also reportedly been taken into custody and, in some cases, transferred to facilities in other countries, without being allowed to contact their families.\n\n\u201cWhile our immigration enforcement should be focused on deporting violent or dangerous criminals, this administration is instead focused on locking up American citizens and terrorizing law-abiding immigrants\u2014it\u2019s morally bankrupt and all of us should be outraged at this abuse of our taxpayer dollars. Everyone detained in this country has the right to access a lawyer and contact their families, regardless of their immigration status,\u201d said Senator Murray. \u201cIt is sickening that DHS has chosen to deprive detainees\u2014including children\u2014of the opportunity to pursue legal counsel or let their worried families know why they won\u2019t be coming home at night. This bill is an important step toward ensuring due process for our own citizens and everyone who calls America home\u2014we\u2019re talking about basic human rights here and America must do better.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor months now, Americans have watched the horrific videos of CBP and ICE agents violently snatching people off the street at schools, workplaces, and grocery stores. But what happens after people are taken into custody is equally disturbing,\u201d said Senator Murphy. \u201cDHS has repeatedly refused to allow people to contact their families and lawyers, traumatizing children and families who are left searching for answers when their loved one suddenly misses after-school pickup or just doesn\u2019t come home for dinner. It\u2019s heartless and deeply un-American. This bill protects the basic right of people in this country to call their family \u2013 which often includes American citizens \u2013 when they are taken into custody. DHS has proven time and again they cannot be trusted to follow basic humanitarian principles, and it\u2019s on Congress to step in and hold them accountable.\u201d\n\n\u201cI saw with my own eyes the reality of Trump\u2019s immigration system: a mother and her four U.S. citizen children disappeared and locked in a windowless cell unable to contact a lawyer or their loved ones. The inhumanity was staggering. If we allow this to continue, we will lose who we are,\u201d said Representative Dexter. \u201cI\u2019m proud to join Senator Chris Murphy in defending the simple truth that access to legal counsel and communication with loved ones isn\u2019t a luxury, it is a fundamental human right.\u201d\n\nThe Restoring Access to Detainees Act would ensure:\n\nPeople detained, or transferred to a new facility, have the right to call their families to let them know where they are;\n\nPeople detained have an opportunity to speak confidentially with their legal counsel or to find competent legal counsel while in custody;\n\nPeople detained have an opportunity to communicate confidentially with existing oversight entities, if applicable; and\n\nThe restoration of a program from the first Trump Administration which established a process for noncitizens to call their families while they are in deportation proceedings.\n\nNotable instances of the Trump Administration cutting off detainees from legal counsel include:\n\nJackie Merlos, a 44-year-old mother with a U-visa and her four U.S. citizen children, who were detained for weeks in a windowless cell without access to legal counsel and unable to contact family or friends.\n\nLuis Peralta, who has lived in the U.S. since he was a child, was detained and transferred from Miami to Tacoma. Officers denied him access to his personal documents, leaving him unable to contact his family or attorney.\n\nMahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old Columbia University graduate and U.S. permanent resident, was arrested without a warrant and transferred across three states \u2014 from New Jersey to New York to Louisiana \u2014 where he spent more than three months in a detention center with limited access to legal counsel.\n\nKilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old from El Salvador living in Maryland, was arrested without a warrant and detained in Texas. Days later, he called his wife to tell her that he was being sent to El Salvador\u2019s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT \u2014 which turned out to be the last time his family heard from him until his return to the U.S. in June.\n\nA 13-year-old Brazilian national was arrested in Everett, MA and transferred to a Virginia detention center. His family and lawyers were left in the dark for days about his location or the reason for his arrest.\n\nGeorge Retes, a U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE agents and held incommunicado, leaving him unable to contact his family \u2014 who only learned what happened to him after his release.\n\nRamon Eduardo Contreras-Hernandez was denied access to legal representation after being transferred from an ICE detention center to a county jail, cutting him off from information about his own case.\n\nA ProPublica investigation found that more than 20 U.S. citizens have reported being detained for over a day without being able to call their loved ones or an attorney.\n\nCivil rights attorneys representing detainees in \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d filed for a temporary restraining order against the detention center, citing systemic violations of detainees\u2019 constitutional rights to legal representation and due process.\n\nIn addition to Senators Murray and Murphy, and Congresswoman Dexter, the bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-NM), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Edward Markey (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Peter Welch (D-VT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and U.S. Representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Judy Chu (D-CA), Salud Carbajal (D-CA), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Rick Larsen (D-WA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Dave Min (D-CA), Nellie Pou (D-NJ), LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), Jill Tokuda (D-HI), Becca Balint (D-VT), Emily Randall (D-WA), Jesus \u201cChuy\u201d Garc\u00eda (D-IL), Gil Cisneros (D-CA), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY), Laura Friedman (D-CA), Frederica Wilson (D-FL), Julie Johnson (D-TX), Nikema Williams (D-GA), Robin Kelley (D-IL), and Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA).\n\nThe full text of the bill is available HERE.\n\nA one-pager for the bill is available HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.murray.senate.gov/murray-murphy-dexter-colleagues-introduce-bicameral-bill-to-ensure-dhs-detainees-can-speak-to-a-lawyer-contact-their-families/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9133039750158787, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}