Los Angeles Times - 23.08.2019

B4 FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2019 LATIMES.COM

than 100 organizations

signed a letter to acting ICE

Director Matthew Albence

demanding that the line be

restored.

The hotline was featured

as part of the immigrant de-

tention plot in an episode re-

leased July 26 as part of the

show’s seventh season. After

two longtime characters end

up in deportation proceed-

ings, they learn that immi-

grant detainees don’t have

the right to a free phone call.

Out of money, they learn

about the Freedom for Im-

migrants hotline and start

passing out the number to

others in the facility.

“Even a freely given bene-

fit such as the pro bono hot-

line can’t be taken away sim-

ply because the government

is now unhappy with how we

are sharing with the public

what we know from our com-

munications with people in-

side,” said Christina Fialho,

co-executive director of

Freedom for Immigrants.

ICE did not respond to a

request for comment Thurs-

day. But the agency told

Freedom for Immigrants

that toll-free numbers for

pro bono attorneys and or-

ganizations must be ap-

proved by the Executive Of-

fice for Immigration Review,

which oversees the immigra-

tion courts, every three

years and that those no long-

er appearing on the EOIR

list will be removed from the

system. The numbers are ex-

tensions issued by the phone

service provider, Talton

Communications, as 1-

numbers don’t work from

within detention facilities.

Detainees must pay for calls

to all other numbers.

Freedom for Immigrants

has held a national toll-free

immigrant detention hot-

line since 2013, when it

started a visitation program

in Miami. Some months, the

organization received 14,

calls from detainees around

the country, many of them

held in rural facilities and

with no money to call friends

or family. Volunteers who

staff the phone lines connect

immigrants to lawyers, help

them gather necessary

documents for their immi-

gration case, and assist

them in filing complaints

about rights violations and

abuse.

Last year, ICE stopped

allowing a volunteer group

to visit people at the Otay

Mesa Detention Center in

San Diego after members

refused to sign an

agreementto not talk with

the media or other groups

about conditions inside.

Fialho said that in Octo-

ber, less than a week after

the organization sent ICE a

letter charging that the

shutdown was retaliatory,

the agency restricted the

previously national hotline

to eight facilities in Florida.

In response, Rep. Juan

Vargas (D-San Diego) and 14

other members of Congress

sent ICE’s deputy director a

letter requesting more infor-

mation and calling the re-

striction troubling.

On Aug. 7, shortly after

the episode of “Orange Is the

New Black” aired, the line

was shut down for the re-

maining Florida facilities.

Fialho said her group now

operates a regular phone

number, at a cost of several

thousand dollars a month,

to continue offering free calls

to detainees.

At its peak, Freedom for

Immigrants had three hot-

line numbers so volunteers

could take more calls. Fialho

said that ICE shut down one

of the extensions at the re-

quest of Bristol County Jail

in Massachusetts shortly af-

ter she had an op-ed pub-

lished in the local news-

paper. She said she received

a similar response then from

ICE about removing num-

bers from the system that

aren’t on the approved

EOIR list. Freedom for Im-

migrants was never on that

list but had been issued ex-

tension numbers anyway.

Laura Gomez, who plays

Blanca on “Orange Is the

New Black,” said she was

heartbroken to learn that

the hotline had been elimi-

nated. At the end of season

six, Blanca is released from

prison, only to learn that

she’s been transferred to

ICE custody.

“Now we see life mimic

art in the most destructive

way,” she said. “I wish this

were more of a fictional situ-

ation and we were exagger-

ating reality, but it’s kind of

the other way around.”

ACTORSLaura Gomez and Diane Guerrero in a scene from the seventh season of “Orange Is the New Black” featuring a detention center.

Netflix

ICE ends hotline for detainees

[Hotline,from B1]

Legislature’s Jewish caucus
in late July, when they ob-
jected to portions of a model
curriculum that is being de-
veloped to guide the state’s
teachers.
They questioned, for ex-
ample, why Islamophobia is
defined in the curriculum’s
glossary but not anti-Semi-
tism. Pro-Israel groups, in
particular, complained that
the curriculum’s brief pre-
sentation of the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict is one-
sided.
Others said the draft cur-
riculum is filled with too
much jargon, including the
glossary, which includes
terms such as “herstory and
“hxrstory” instead of “his-
tory,” and “cisheteropatri-
archy.”
Ethnic studies in Califor-
nia have focused mainly on
four groups: Latinos, Afri-
can Americans, Asian
Americans and indigenous
peoples — those present in
the Americas before the pe-
riod of European coloniza-
tion. The academic field is
rooted in California activism
in 1968, when the Black Stu-
dent Union and a coalition of
student groups at San Fran-
cisco State University,
known as the Third World
Liberation Front, began a
student strike calling for
ethnic studies.Scholars see
their field as an antidote to
mainstream doctrine.
But members of other
ethnic groups said they
want the curriculum to in-
clude their American experi-
ence as well.
In response, groups in-
cluding Black Lives Matter
California, the League of
United Latin American Citi-
zens California, the North-
ern California Foco of the
National Assn. for Chicana
and Chicano Studies, and
Jewish Voice for Peace - Bay
Area said earlier this week
that significant revisions
could weaken the integrity of
the academic discipline.
State officials pledged
last week that there will be
substantial changes to the
curriculumto make it more
inclusive before its final ap-
proval.
The deadline for the cur-
riculum was set for next
March, but that too could be
pushed back, officials said
recently. An extension
would require new legisla-
tion, said Scott Roark, a
spokesman for the state De-
partment of Education.
Assemblyman Jesse Ga-
briel, vice chairman of the
Legislature’s Jewish caucus,
called Medina’s decision to
delay action on the gradua-
tion requirement “a wise
move.”
“We know that a lot of
school districts around the
state are going to rely on the
model curriculum,” said Ga-
briel, who represents the
west San Fernando Valley.
“And what we do here in Cal-
ifornia could be a model for
other states to follow,”
Gabriel has backed the
requirement but said it
would have been difficult to
continue supporting Me-
dina’s bill had the curricu-
lum been approved as is.
R. Tolteka Cuauhtin, a
Los Angeles teacher who co-
chaired the advisory com-
mittee that created the draft
curriculum, said he was
comfortable with the delay.
“I let Assembly member
Medina know a couple of
weeks ago, I strongly recom-
mend the conversion of [the
legislation] into a two-year
bill. It makes sense,” said
Cuauhtin.
“Can we help others feel
more included? Yes, defi-
nitely — not at the cost of
what ethnic studies is,
though. That would create a
situation where students of
color will get a diluted form
of ethnic studies.”
He added that all stu-
dents, including white stu-
dents, would benefit from a
strong ethnic studies curric-
ulum.
Medina’s delay allows the
curriculum to evolve into its
final form before lawmakers
have to vote on whether to
make it a graduation re-
quirement. Medina said
Thursday that he’s also go-
ing to amend the bill so that
no students would have to
meet the requirement until
those graduating in 2026.
Aseparate pending bill
would make ethnic studies a
graduation requirement for
students at Cal State cam-
puses.

Ethnic

studies

bill put

on hold

[E thnic studies,from B1]

The nonbinding resolu-

tion, sponsored by Supervi-

sor Sandra Lee Fewer,

passed last month in a near-

unanimous vote. One super-

visor was absent.

The San Francisco

County district attorney’s

Sentencing Commission,

the Bay Area’s Reentry

Council and San Francisco’s

Youth Commission — a

group of 17 young people

ages 12 to 23 — passed reso-

lutions supporting the

changed language.

Mayor London Breed has

not signed the proposal.

Breed does not implement

policies based on nonbind-

ing resolutions.

“That proposal was a

nonbinding urging resolu-

tion, and as a practice the

mayor does not sign any

resolutions of that kind. She

is always happy to work with

the board on issues around

equity and criminal justice

reform,” said spokesperson

Andy Lynch.

The proposal comes on

the heels of Berkeley city

leaders’ passage of an ordi-

nance to replace more than

two dozen terms with gen-

der-neutral words. The City

Council voted in July to re-

place “manhole” with “main-

tenance hole,” “craftsmen”

with “artisans,” and to stop

identifying firefighters and

police officers by gender.

AN INMATEat a California county jail. San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors

wants to get rid of pejorative descriptions in the criminal justice system.

Rich PedroncelliAssociated Press

Parolee? ‘A person

under supervision’

[L anguage,from B1]

brain development and lead

to addiction, impulsiveness

and mood disorders. The

U.S. Food and Drug Admin-

istration reported last year

that use of e-cigarettes and

flavored tobacco products

by youths had “hit epidemic

proportions.”

“When I talk to adults,

they don’t realize that it’s

really a dire problem,” said

Lisa Lu, a San Marino High

School senior who started a

nonprofitto reduce smoking

here and overseas.

The daughter of a cardi-

ologist, Lu spent her early

childhood in a smoke-free

world — a sheltered up-

bringing that changed on a

freshman year trip to China.

There, she saw the preva-

lence of smoking in public,

where it’s especially com-

mon among men. It opened

her eyes to how tobacco use

can become normal in a soci-

ety.

She fears that the rising

popularity of vaping could

lead to another generation

of Americans addicted to

nicotine, and she’s traveled

to L.A. County’s Hall of Ad-

ministration and to Capitol

Hill to lobby against flavored

tobacco.

“It’s actually something

that’s really pressing right

now,” she said.

One in 10 high school stu-

dents in Los Angeles County

is an e-cigarette user, ac-

cording to a studyby re-

searchers at UC San Diego.

Among those students,

nearly all report a preference

for flavored tobacco prod-

ucts.

About 60% of all current

e-cigarette users reported

purchasing the products in

vape shops, the study found.

The county’s public

health department and

treasurer and tax collector’s

office have scheduled a webi-

nar in early September to of-

fer more information to re-

tailers and others interested

in the proposed changes.

Agrowing number of lo-

cal and state governments

are considering or have al-

ready implemented similar

tobacco bans in recent years.

The city of Los Angeles is

studying the issue. In the

Bay Area, several local gov-

ernments, including San

Francisco and San Mateo

County, have outlawed sales

—as has the city of Sacra-

mento. An effort to adopt a

statewide ban fizzled earlier

this year in the Legislature.

Industry groups, as ex-

pected, say they oppose L.A.

County’s proposed restric-

tions.

Ryan Hanretty, executive

director of the California Fu-

els & Convenience Alliance,

which represents gas sta-

tions, said his members are

committed to complying

with the state’s current age

restrictions on tobacco

sales.

“Unlike online sales or

the black market created by

government bans, conven-

ience stores are highly regu-

lated, with a trained employ-

ee performing ID checks at

the point of sale,” he said.

L.A. County began craft-

ing the proposed ordinance

last year, after Supervisor

Mark Ridley-Thomas re-

quested more scrutiny of

vape shops in his district.

That led to a motion in Sep-

tember ordering county offi-

cials to study requiring the

shops to be licensed and for

regulations on flavored to-

bacco.

Ridley-Thomas has

raised concerns in the past

aboutthe large number of

tobacco and vape shops in

his district, which includes

many poor neighborhoods

in South L.A. He also has

echoed the concerns of

health advocates, who worry

that the rise of e-cigarettes

has eroded decades of ef-

forts to reduce smoking

among all Americans, but

especially young people.

“We thought we had over-

come some of these prob-

lems with the traditional cig-

arette industry,” Ridley-

Thomas said during a Sep-

tember 2018 meeting. “It’s

back in our faces again.”

County could ban sale of flavored tobacco

L.A. COUNTY SUPERVISORSwill review a proposal to ban the sale of flavored

nicotine juice, among other tobacco products, in an effort to curb vaping by teens.

Samantha MaldonadoAssociated Press

[T obacco,from B1]