Democratic lawmakers unveiled a bill Friday that would guarantee immigrant detainees the right to contact their families and speak to legal counsel in custody, amid the Trump administration's push to ramp up major enforcement efforts that have led to arrests of people while dropping off children at school or grocery shopping.

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Ore., are leading the charge with the backing of 58 U.S. Senate and House of Representatives lawmakers in their introduction of the bicameral legislation, "Restoring Access to Detainees Act," which would ensure that noncitizen detainees are provided limited, free telephone services to speak with their legal counsel and stay in contact with their families. 

In a press statement Friday, Murphy said that for several months, Americans have seen "horrific videos" of agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement violently hauling off people who are going about their day, whether they're shopping at stores, getting into a rideshare vehicle or dropping off kids at schools. 

"But what happens after people are taken into custody is equally disturbing," Murphy said. "[The Department of Homeland Security] has repeatedly refused to allow people to contact their families and lawyers, traumatizing children and families who are left searching for answers when their loved one suddenly misses after-school pickup or just doesn't come home for dinner. It's heartless and deeply un-American."

Murphy's announcement referenced several examples of the Trump administration cutting off access to attorneys for detainees, including Columbia University graduate and U.S. permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested in March and subsequently transferred from New Jersey to New York to Louisiana, where he was in custody for over three months. 

Khalil alleged that his continued detention at an ICE processing facility in Louisiana had blocked him from meaningful access to his attorneys and wife during his habeas proceedings.

The bill comes amid a contentious year since Trump took office for a second term with a vow to bring a stop to illegal immigration across the country. Since the summer, the Trump administration has extended mandatory detention to all noncitizens without lawful status, a major escalation of its broader crackdown on immigration.

These monthslong efforts have prompted civil rights organizations to bring lawsuits against the federal government, accusing it of improperly keeping detainees from accessing legal counsel and of subjecting them to inhumane conditions at holding facilities.

Some have also taken legal action against ICE over courthouse arrests.

On July 16, a proposed class action was filed by immigrant rights groups and noncitizens jailed at "Alligator Alcatraz" located in the Florida Everglades, alleging attorneys are barred from consulting detainees, who are allegedly being prevented from challenging their detention.

That same month, Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives sued the Trump administration in D.C. federal court over a new DHS policy that delays and prevents members of Congress from conducting visits to federal immigration detention centers, where the lawmakers said there are growing reports of mistreatment, overcrowding, and unsanitary conditions.

The Trump administration was hit with a proposed class action in September alleging it has turned Northern California's immigration courts into "a trap" where masked agents unexpectedly ambush and needlessly arrest immigrants who must then endure squalid conditions in a makeshift holding facility in San Francisco.

That complaint, led by asylum seekers Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen, Yulia Alvarado Ambrocio and Ligia Garcia, alleges the administration illegally eliminated policies limiting immigration enforcement in areas like courthouses as well as allowable detention times in a push to ramp up arrests focused almost entirely on numbers, rather than the records of those being arrested.

Nearly two-thirds of deportations the administration carried out through May have involved those with no prior criminal record, according to the suit.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Casey Pitts barred ICE from detaining the asylum seekers without notice and a hearing, ruling the agencies' arrest tactics likely violate due process.

On Oct. 30, Pablo Moreno Gonzalez and Felipe Agustin Zamacona sued DHS, CBP and ICE for "warehousing" individuals arrested and detained at the government's Broadview, Illinois holding facility where detainees are crammed by the dozens into one of the facility's four holding rooms, denied changes of clothes or sufficient medical care.

The plaintiffs further alleged officials are prohibiting detainees from accessing their attorneys or potential legal counsel, as officers tell attorneys they can't visit their clients. The following day, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman said during a remote hearing in the case that the officials must transport Gonzalez and Zamacona back to the district and take all steps necessary to facilitate communication with their attorneys.

The text of the bill for Restoring Access to Detainees Act said the current communication options for detainees are helpful but still don't sufficiently address their needs, including those who are indigent or are looking for an attorney.

The bill calls for the secretary of homeland security to set up measures to ensure detainees won't be prevented from accessing methods of communication as described in the text, or making additional calls to other individuals at their own expense.

The bill would also prevent detention facilities from imposing restrictions on the amount of time that detainees could communicate with their attorneys, or limit the duration of such communications through an automatic cutoff time. These communications cannot be monitored or recorded, and must take place with auditory privacy, according to the bill.

"I saw with my own eyes the reality of Trump's immigration system: a mother and her four U.S. citizen children disappeared and locked in a windowless cell unable to contact a lawyer or their loved ones," Dexter said in a statement Friday. "If we allow this to continue, we will lose who we are. I'm proud to join Senator Chris Murphy in defending the simple truth that access to legal counsel and communication with loved ones isn't a luxury, it is a fundamental human right."

--Additional reporting by Lauren Berg, Tom Lotshaw, Madeline Lyskawa, Bonnie Eslinger, Britain Eatkin, and Lauraann Wood. Editing by Linda Voorhis.