Local Agencies Must Now Disclose 911 Calls from Privately operated Immigration Detention Facilities
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SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed SB 423, the Detention Facility Transparency Act, into law. SB 423 amends the California Public Records Act to require local agencies to disclose audio recordings and related records concerning 911 calls and other calls for emergency services originating from private detention facilities.
The bill, authored by state Sen. Lena Gonzalez and co-sponsored by FAC and Immigrant Defense Advocates, sheds 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.
“Journalists are working everyday to tell important stories about what’s happening in these privately run, for-profit detention centers as the number of people detained by ICE surges. Too often, journalists doing this crucial investigative journalism face barriers to information that should be public. SB 423 changes that by ensuring more information becomes public,” said Ginny LaRoe, FAC Advocacy Director.
Reporters who have covered immigration detention know how incredibly difficult it can be to report on such a frustratingly opaque system — even as it affects the lives of tens of thousands of people across the country who are being held on any given day. Requests for public information from the federal government are often delayed or require litigation to be successful. Frequently, even basic questions go unanswered by officials.
“Because of this new law, journalists across California will soon have access to vital records documenting allegations from immigration detention centers and how officials responded to those allegations,” said Paloma Esquivel, a press education specialist at FAC. “It is an important step toward shedding light on a system that too often is allowed to operate in darkness.”
“People in immigration detention are suffering behind closed doors, and the public should not have to fight through layers of secrecy just to learn when someone has been seriously harmed or when emergency services are repeatedly called to a detention facility. SB 423 helps bring basic transparency to a system where too much can happen outside public view. Families deserve answers, journalists and advocates need access to information, and Californians have a right to understand what is happening inside facilities operating in their communities. Transparency cannot undo the harm people experience in detention, but it can make that harm harder to ignore,” said Jackie Gonzalez, Co-Executive Director of Immigrant Defense Advocates.
See the news releases and additional quotes from Sen. Gonzalez and Gov. Newsom.
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Immigrant Defense Advocates (IDA) is a California-based policy project working to protect the rights, dignity and safety of immigrant communities through legal advocacy, policy reform and community-centered defense. IDA advocates for transparency and accountability in systems that detain, surveil and separate immigrant families.
The First Amendment Coalition (FAC) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest organization working across California to defend free speech, a free press and the people’s right to know. It provides educational resources, engages in impact litigation and champions policy reform to advance press and public access to government information.