TurnSignl app helps provide on-demand legal help to people stopped by ICE
Amid ongoing immigration operations in Minnesota, a local company is filling a desperate need for on-demand legal help.
TurnSignl was started in 2020 by attorney and former mayoral candidate Jazz Hampton. He developed it after George Floyd was murdered, to connect drivers to an attorney when they've been pulled over. But now they're filling another huge void: on-demand legal help for people stopped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"They're doing the review of cases in Texas and then they're finding out, oh this person does have legal status we have to send them back," said Hampton. "The level of disorganization is, to me, startling."
He recently waited inside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building for 90 minutes, only to find out his client, who was returned from Texas, was in a rural Minnesota jail.
"Finally an agent just took down the person I was looking for - their name and went and called throughout the cells to try to find that person," said Hampton.
He says his client is someone who never should have been picked up by ICE in the first place.
"This is a situation where it was someone who was actively seeking asylum and having a pending case. They had work papers and were actively working, contributing to our society and paying taxes. They were picked up, taken to another state, returned back to this state, and then the family was just trying to figure out where they were," said Hampton.
WCCO asked if he felt federal immigration agents are following the law.
"Absolutely not," he said. "I believe ICE is acting unconstitutionally in our streets continuously," said Hampton.
But he's also making sure more people have access to attorneys like him.
"It's all hands on deck in this moment," said Hampton. "There's a leveling of knowledge and playing field that happens when an attorney's present and that driver can say, 'I'm talking to an immigration attorney right now,' and they said, 'These papers are sufficient. I'm going to hand them to you,'" said Hampton.
Here's how it works: Say you're pulled over by an ICE agent. You would just open the app and it will connect you with a live attorney. The app even has translation services.
"This is being saved directly to the cloud so even if your phone is lost, damaged, stolen or anything in between, it's going to save that video for you and you'll always have access to it," said Hampton.
The app also gives the attorney location information on where you are as a user. Translated captions are available in 50 languages, removing the language barrier.
There are sponsors for people who can't afford the service, so all who need it have access to a legal lifeline in the face of an immigration crackdown.
"We just try to give courage that we will go there and fight as much as we can," said Hampton, adding that we are in uncharted territory.
Hampton says several large employers are providing this service for employees. If you'd like to do the same or donate memberships to others you can do that too. A subscription is $99 a year for unlimited access.