Hotlines

“Giving people the tools to understand their cases is an important way of transferring power and giving them access to something they should have access to already.”

– Ellie Lapp, Former Protection Counselor, UNHCR

what are Hotlines?

Through hotlines–– a free number immigrants can call––staff provide essential information about the immigration system, access to resources, referrals, and other services to immigrants and their families. Hotlines increase the ability of immigrants to navigate the complex U.S. immigration system by building knowledge and community, and helping individuals use laws and policies to advance their right to remain in the United States. In turn, immigrants can share and spread their knowledge to others around them, building a network of empowered actors.

Hotlines provide a variety of information. In some cases, they may explain the basic process of a case including how to file motions. They can also provide preliminary case and country-specific information to clients for building their asylum cases. This is especially true for people detained in rural parts of the country where access to pro bono and low-cost legal services is severely limited. In other instances, hotlines act as referral systems, raising awareness of and connecting immigrants to others who can provide greater assistance, such as legal aid organizations, community based organizations, and pro bono lawyers. Some hotlines allow immigrants to report due process violations and fraud, a process of documenting experiences that may lead to structural changes in the system. Hotlines can also help immigrants process trauma and provide access to social support.

Hotline management requires resources. Hotlines highlighted on this site lower costs in a variety of ways through engagement of volunteers, partnership with vendors to provide subsidized shipping for pro se materials to immigrants, and the development of an online database that houses essential immigration-related resources to guide volunteers in answering calls from community members, among other things.

hotlines in action

Beyond Legal Aid

Beyond Legal Aid operates a free hotline available to any immigrant caller without access to an attorney. The Beyond Helpline operates both in English and Spanish and is checked regularly every weekday. All calls are returned for a free immigration screening and legal consultation within 2-7 days, depending on the urgency. The Beyond Helpline exists to combat the fear instigated by ICE, answer questions and provide support for individuals and families who don’t know where else to turn, and connect immigrants to additional legal resources, including Beyond’s community-located, community-operated, and community-directed programs.

Catholic Charities New York

CCNY’s Hotline Services comprises three programs that connect callers to legal information, referrals, and support.

The Office of New Americans (ONA) Hotline provides callers from throughout New York State with general legal information and referrals to non-profit legal providers. CCNY also helps callers report immigration consultant, attorney, and notario fraud to enforcement authorities.
CCNY helps New York City residents make legal screening appointments with non-profit navigators, provide referrals to other city-funded legal programs, and share information on relevant immigration law, policy, and procedure.
The LOPC (Legal Orientation Program for Custodians) National Call Center helps custodians of unaccompanied children understand the responsibilities they assume after a child’s release from ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement) custody into their care. CCNY schedules appointments for legal orientations with LOPC providers across the country and provides legal orientations to individuals who live outside of the providers’ service areas.

Grassroots Leadership

Grassroots Leadership ran La Linea de Defensa Comunitaria, a bilingual Spanish/English hotline that aimed to build solidarity, knowledge, and power of immigrant communities.

The hotline combatted the issue of immigrants being isolated from information, resources, and services. While most immigrants in the United States live in large cities, there has also been huge growth of rural immigrant populations. In a 2017 study of over 2500 rural places, there was a 130% growth in the immigrant population. While these communities provide jobs and economic opportunities for immigrants, they often lack legal aid bureaus, bilingual services, and social organizations, which can be key to integration and access to information about the immigration system. Grassroots Leadership’s hotline, often run by directly impacted community members, importantly provided resources and support to community members in the midst of an unfolding immigration crisis. The hotline was a catalyst for action. It helped people find loved ones in detention centers/jails, facilitated accompaniments, connected community members to pro bono and trusted private attorneys, find support for basic needs (financial, food, mental health), and offered a way to sign up for Know Your Rights trainings. The hotline ensured that Grassroots Leadership was informed about the most urgent community challenges. Grassroots Leadership created programs to respond to these needs. The hotline was operated seven days a week by volunteers from 9:00AM to 9:00PM.

Houston Immigrant Legal Services Collaborative (HILSC)

HILSC coordinates the Immigrant Rights Hotline in partnership with Boat People SOS, BakerRipley, United We Dream, Houston Volunteer Lawyers, and The ACLU of Texas. The hotline provides callers with referrals to legal service providers and immigrant rights organizers, contact information for trusted private immigration attorneys, up-to-date information about immigration policies, and warnings about notario fraud. It also serves as a place to report ICE enforcements, discrimination, hate incidents, and racial profiling. ICE operates in a way that instills fear and panic in immigrant communities, even in cities with many resources. Raids can happen early in the morning or late at night, and family members go missing without their loved ones knowing where they are being held in detention. For such crises, hotlines are a way for immigrants and their families to have immediate support. HILSC’s hotline is operated by non-profit staff and DOJ accredited representatives who can answer general questions about current immigration laws, rules, and regulations. The hotline is hosted on ring[x] software, and HILSC developed a database on the back-end to help guide the hotline operator as they answer queries that come through. This database houses an impressive array of resources and information and is also connected to a Law Lab feature, which tracks immigration cases and the detained docket. Initial dissemination of the hotline was done through local news, government offices, consulates, and social media.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

UNHCR offers a toll free hotline for United States-based asylum seekers that people can call at any time. As of May 2024, the hotline is now operated through a partnership agreement with the American Bar Association (ABA). They decided to join forces between the UNHCR and ABA national detention hotlines and jointly increase impact and efficiency. Those who leave messages receive a call back during regular business hours. Additionally, for asylum seekers in detention, they operate a toll-free protection hotline Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 2pm – 5pm EST with telephonic interpretation available. The protection hotline is accessible by dialing #566 from within detention facilities. Calls to the hotline get routed to the ABA team. UNHCR and the ABA have dedicated coordination channels so any issues that need to be specifically addressed by UNHCR get routed to them. Issues that can be handled by the ABA (such as general pro se information) remain with them. Following the phone calls, UNHCR sends a pro se packet with information about the defensive asylum process, how to file an appeal, parole bonds, and country conditions specific to an individual’s country of origin and fear of persecution. When feasible, the information is provided in the caller’s preferred language. The packet is typically received in two weeks but expedited shipping is available for urgent cases.