The Obama administration has found a new way to fight against states’ efforts to nab illegal immigrants. It created a free new hot line Thursday to assist people taken in on immigration charges.
Detained individuals can call anytime, day or night, if they think they “may be U.S. citizens or victims of a crime,” according to the Homeland Security Department’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which launched the hot line.
The hot line will offer translation in several different languages. ICE staffers will assemble the caller’s information and then direct it to a field office for immediate action, according to a news release from the agency.
The hot line is meant “to ensure that individuals being held by state or local law enforcement on immigration detainers are properly notified about their potential removal from the country and are made aware of their rights,” the release says.
It’s all “part of a broader effort to improve our immigration enforcement process and prioritize resources to focus on threats to public safety, repeat immigration law violators, recent border entrants and immigration fugitives while continuing to strengthen oversight of the nation’s immigration detention system and facilitate legal immigration,” according to the release.
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