Californians have a right to know about 911 calls from ICE detention centers

Writing in a guest commentary for CalMatters, journalist Paloma Esquivel of the First Amendment Coalition argues that Californians should be able to hear the nine one one calls coming out of the state's immigration detention centers. She writes that the number of people held in privately run facilities in California has more than doubled since last year, and that six people have died since September at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center and the Imperial Regional Detention Facility, both in Southern California. Esquivel points to San Diego County, where the sheriff's department denied a records request about alleged sexual assaults at the Otay Mesa facility, citing an exemption for investigative records even though it was not investigating the cases. State Senator Lena Gonzalez, a Democrat from Long Beach, has introduced Senate Bill four twenty-three, which would require local agencies to release nine one one calls and related records from those for-profit centers, with safeguards for investigations and victim privacy.

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