Sponsors (49)
The bill expands detainees' access to free and confidential communications—strengthening legal access, family contact, and wellbeing—while imposing meaningful fiscal, administrative, security, and implementation burdens on government and taxpayers.
Immigrants in civil immigration detention regain timely, free access to phone calls (including at least one 10-minute call within 5 hours, 200 free outgoing minutes/month, and unlimited confidential calls with legal counsel), improving ability to contact family, secure counsel, prepare cases, reduce detention delays, and pursue appeals.
Detained low-income individuals and their families face lower communication costs because each detainee receives at least 200 free outgoing minutes per month.
Detainees and families benefit from mandated facility protocols (e.g., protections against dissuasion/retaliation and public facility policies) that increase transparency and reduce arbitrary denial of communications.
Taxpayers and federal budgets face higher costs because providing free minutes, confidentiality protections, and additional oversight will increase DHS/ICE operational and contracting expenditures and may require reallocating funds from other priorities.
Federal agencies, contractors, and detention facilities will face increased administrative, compliance, and contractual burdens (including new operational protocols and monitoring/contracting changes) raising staffing, legal, and implementation costs.
Restoring free and confidential communications introduces privacy and security risks (and complicates facility security): unmonitored or expanded communications could create national-security/privacy concerns and require new safeguards and infrastructure.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Requires DHS to provide detained noncitizens free, confidential communications (initial calls, monthly family minutes, and unlimited unmonitored counsel/official calls) and protocol protections.
Introduced November 7, 2025 by Maxine Dexter · Last progress November 7, 2025
Requires the Department of Homeland Security to provide detained noncitizens with free, timely, and private communications so they can contact family, legal counsel, consular officials, and certain oversight bodies. It sets minimum guarantees (an initial 10‑minute family call within five hours of custody or transfer, at least 200 free outgoing family minutes per month, confidential opportunities to contact counsel and consulates, and unlimited free, unmonitored communications with counsel and specified legal/oversight entities) and directs DHS to adopt protocols preventing retaliation and dissuasion. Also defines key terms (communication and custody), preserves existing settlement agreements, and allows facilities to set reasonable time/place/manner rules that do not limit the substantive communication guarantees; the bill does not itself appropriate new funds and includes a nonbinding statement urging that previously allocated funds be reserved to restore free telephone service for detainees.