"Orange Is the New Black." Courtesy photo

A California nonprofit is suing the federal agencies that oversee immigration enforcement claiming that they illegally shut down free access to a hotline that allowed immigrants in detention to report abuse, find resources, and connect with loved ones.

Freedom for Immigrants (FFI), represented by lawyers at Los Angeles litigation boutique Hueston Hennigan, sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, claiming the agencies and federal officials retaliated against the organization after its hotline was featured in a plotline in the popular Netflix television series "Orange Is the New Black" this summer.

In the seventh season of the show, which began streaming on Netflix in July, one character provided another potentially facing deportation with a four-digit telephone extension to contact FFI's hotline for help. "You gotta be careful though," said the character providing the hotline number. "Apparently as soon as Big Brother figures out you're using the hotline, they shut it down."

Lawyers for the FFI, which has run the National Immigration Detention Hotline since December 2013, claim that the government's action is the "the most perverse form of art imitating life imitating art." Two weeks after the new season of the show began airing, they claim, the government pulled the plug on free access to the hotline.

"ICE's shutdown of the hotline violates FFI's First Amendment rights to be free from retaliation for engaging in protected speech, and to speak freely to, and associate with, persons in immigration detention," wrote the organization's lawyers, led by Hueston Hennigan's Moez Kaba. "The shutdown also violates the First Amendment rights of detained immigrants, who, without the hotline, either are unable to contact FFI at all or can only do so by paying exorbitant fees, as calls can cost upwards of $1 a minute," they wrote.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Kaba said that as the son of immigrants, it was important for him to take on work for people who are held in detention. The complaint alleges a pattern of federal officials retaliating against FFI and its programs, which includes a national network of visitation programs at immigrant detainment facilities. The complaint claims that after officials with FFI have spoken out about the conditions immigrants face in detention in the past, immigration officials have limited the organizations access to those facilities. Kaba said that Christina Fialho, co-executive director of FFI, reached out to the firm to litigate after access to its free hotline was cut off.

"When it comes to taking cases all the way that's something that our firm really prides itself on," Kaba said.

Immigrant detainees formerly could dial *9233# for free access to volunteers who could help them file formal complaints about alleged abuses or attempt to locate family members from whom they'd been separated. According to Kaba, detainees are now forced to pay to call FFI, which has led the organization to buy prepaid phone cards and distributed them to detainment facilities across the country. Kaba says that ICE's explanation for the cutoff was initially that it was part of a routine pro bono audit, but officials have since shifted to accuse FFI of improperly arranging three-way calls and call forwarding. Kaba says that's something FFI trains operators specifically not to do—and something that isn't explicitly forbidden.

"Their shifting explanation shows there's no rational basis for their actions," Kaba says.

The firm is seeking an injunction reinstating the hotline and barring ICE and ICE officials from interfering with the First Amendment rights of the organization and detainees.

Representatives of DHS didn't respond to messages seeking comment Tuesday. A spokesperson for ICE declined to comment but pointed to prior comments that the allegation is simply not true, and the Enforcement and Removal Operations verified the pro bono speed dial for FFI was removed from the agency's pro bono list in October 2018, predating the TV show by nearly a year.