VIA ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION
March 22, 2013
Federal Communications Commission
FCC 12-167
Before the Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554
In the Matter of Rates for Interstate Inmate Calling Services
WC Docket No. 12-375
Immigration Equality Comments on
NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULEMAKING
Dear Sirs/Madams:
Immigration Equality is a national organization that advocates for the rights of lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, (“LGBT”) and HIV-positive immigrants. Immigration Equality runs a pro bono
asylum project, provides technical assistance to attorneys, maintains an informational website, and fields
questions from LGBT and HIV-positive individuals from around the world. Additionally, through
education, outreach and advocacy, Immigration Equality works to change the laws that unfairly impact
LGBT and HIV-positive immigrants. Immigration Equality runs a national hotline that provides free
legal information for detained LGBT and HIV-positive immigrants, regularly provides direct
representation for detainees, and matches low-income asylum seekers in detention with volunteer
attorneys. Immigration Equality has helped draft training materials for detention staff who work with
LGBT immigrants and has authored the leading manual on preparing sexual orientation-based and HIVbased asylum claims.
We submit these comments to urge the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) to take
steps to regulate the high cost of calls at immigration detention facilities. These rates prevent many
detained, indigent asylum seekers from presenting their claims meaningfully in immigration court,
severely jeopardizing their right to Due Process. To prevail on their claims, all asylum seekers must
obtain evidence, including letters from witnesses, country condition information, identity documents,
and court records. Troublingly, the high cost of detention calls creates a Catch-22 for detained asylum
seekers—the government demands that they produce evidence to support their claim, and then creates a
significant financial barrier to obtaining that very evidence. For LGBT asylum seekers in particular,

statements from friends and family can be dispositive in corroborating an individual’s sexual orientation
or gender identity.
For example, one client of ours, Juanita (not her real name), a transgender woman detained in
New Jersey, was unable to afford the rates to call her home village in Mexico to collect letters from her
family members in support of her asylum claim. As her family’s primary language was not Spanish, but
rather Mixtec, an indigenous Mesoamerican language, Juanita’s attorney was unable to communicate
effectively with her family members in order to obtain statements. The immigration judge reviewing
Juanita’s case later questioned why there were no affidavits from her Mexican family or friends
corroborating Juanita’s claims. Juanita’s attorney was able to overcome this evidentiary gap by
explaining the language barrier; however, the majority of detained immigrants have no legal
representation in immigration court and left to communicate with the outside world entirely on their
own, primarily through use of collect phone calls..
The costly rates of detention calls extend to local calls, as well. Juanita had difficulty in calling
the local hospital in New Jersey that held her medical records because they would not accept her collect
calls. Without these medical records, it would have been almost impossible for her to prove her case.
The medical records corroborated the ongoing, debilitating psychological effects she suffered after being
beaten and raped in Mexico. If Juanita had not had an attorney, she would not have been able to
communicate with the hospital and may not have won her case. We highlight Juanita’s case, not
because the facts are extreme, but because they are so ordinary. On any given day, more than 30,000
foreign nationals are held in immigration detention. Each detainee must meet the same legal standards
for relief in their immigration cases as those are not detained. Yet each detainee faces the almost
insurmountable barrier of communicating with would-be witnesses and those who can gather evidence
on their behalf. Making matters worse, detained immigration cases are heard on an expedited calendar,
so, for anyone who needs to communicate with someone in a foreign country, using the postal system
will generally not be fast enough.
Costly phone rates also increase the isolation and alienation experienced by detained LGBT
immigrants. Because detainees often have loved ones who lack immigration status in the United States,
they cannot visit detention centers in person and must rely on expensive telephone calls as their only
means of contact. One Immigration Equality client, a gay man detained for 18 months, ran out of
savings in detention and therefore simply could not afford to call anyone except for the few who were
willing to accept his collect calls. In part because of the isolation he felt in detention, he was diagnosed
with clinical depression and required a course of anti-depressants in detention, at the government’s
expense. Most of the transgender detainees whom we represent are held in “administrative segregation”
or isolation for at least part of the time they are detained. The isolation they already face is greatly
magnified when exorbitant phone rates render it impossible to call their loved ones.

The excessive costs of collect calls fall not only on immigrant detainees themselves, but also on the
non-profit organizations that provide free legal services to these communities. Because detainees often
simply cannot afford phone rates, legal service organizations like Immigration Equality must accept
collect calls in order to speak with detainees. For non-profit organizations with limited resources, the
high costs of these calls results in the wasteful expenditure of financial resources that could be used to
represent more immigrants, most of whom are unrepresented in their removal proceedings. In 2012,
Immigration Equality spent $2,639.52 on collect calls from detention centers.
The excessive rates charged for these phone calls are especially unreasonable given that the audio
quality is often poor and calls are frequently dropped. Complex billing methods add to the burden on
legal service providers. In order to run its national hotline, Immigration Equality must set up a separate
collect call account with each individual detention center. With more than 250 immigration detention
centers nationwide, the lack of a centralized structure poses an extraordinary burden on non-profit legal
service providers like Immigration Equality. Any account that does not retain a minimum balance
results in the rejection of all calls from that detention center. For desperate LGBT asylum seekers who
fear deportation to a country where they will be attacked or possibly murdered, rejected attorney calls
can literally be a matter of life and death.
In addition to high basic rates, hidden fees also add an unnecessary level of unnavigable and
unexpected costs to detention calls. For example, GlobalTel, one of the nation’s largest providers of
detention call services, charges a $4.75 service fee for every $25 billed to an account, simply to pay
online or by phone. Additionally, after an individual is released from detention, GlobalTel charges a fee
of $5 simply to recover the money already paid, and claims any remaining money on an account as
forfeited after ninety days. Perhaps most mystifyingly of all, GlobalTel also administers a fee it labels a
“FUSF Admin” fee for each detention call made, without a clear explanation that this is a fee that goes
to Federal Universal Service Fund. The Federal Universal Service Fund is an FCC created fund that
lists its goals on its own website as follows:
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Promote the availability of quality services at just, reasonable and affordable rates for all
consumers
Increase nationwide access to advanced telecommunications services
Advance the availability of such services to all consumers, including those in low income, rural,
insular, and high cost areas at rates that are reasonably comparable to those charged in urban
areas
Increase access to telecommunications and advanced services in schools, libraries and rural
health care facilities
Provide equitable and non-discriminatory contributions from all providers of
telecommunications services to the fund supporting universal service programs

The FCC’s promise of promoting “just, reasonable, and affordable rates” to “low income, insular”
communities stands in stark contrast to the situation of immigrant detainees, who continue to struggle
with exorbitantly high phone rates. Moreover, rather than being transparent and reasonable, private
prison phone companies often erect significant barriers to communication between customers and the
phone company. For example, Immigration Equality’s legal team must regularly wait on hold for
upwards of twenty minutes simply to make a billing inquiry with a GlobalTel service representative.
Rather than offering easy-to-understand payment methods, detention call service provider Offender
Connect,lists on its website a broad array of confusing options including features named “PIN Debit and
Trust Fund Deposits” and “Offender Trust Fund Deposits.” For indigent immigrant detainees and their
families whose command of English may be imperfect, simply trying to understand what and how they
are paying these phone companies can be nearly impossible.
Until the FCC begins to regulate phone rates at immigration detention centers nationwide, it falls far
short of its mission under the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to "make available so far as possible, to
all the people of the United States, without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national
origin, or sex, rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication services with
adequate facilities at reasonable charges… for the purpose of promoting safety of life and property
through the use of wire and radio communications.” Phone access is crucial to detained immigrants for
maintaining contact with their loved ones, and also for purposes of securing evidence to defend against
deportation proceedings. Without phone rates that are reasonably priced, the basic guarantee that an
immigrant be able to present evidence in defense of her own removal becomes illusory.
Sincerely,

Victoria F. Neilson, Esq. Legal Director
And Clement Lee, Staff Attorney