Ms. L. v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement et al

Filing 191

STATUS REPORT Joint Report by Greg Archambeault, Alex Azar, L. Francis Cissna, Pete Flores, Joseph Greene, Thomas Homan, Francis M. Jackson, Scott Lloyd, Adrian P. Macias, Hector A. Mancha Jr., Kevin K. McAleenan, Kirstjen Nielsen, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Fabian, Sarah) (aef).

Case 3:18-cv-00428-DMS-MDD Document 191 Filed 08/16/18 PageID.3236 Page 1 of 8

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CHAD A. READLER
Acting Assistant Attorney General
SCOTT G. STEWART
Deputy Assistant Attorney General
WILLIAM C. PEACHEY
Director
Office of Immigration Litigation
WILLIAM C. SILVIS
Assistant Director
Office of Immigration Litigation
SARAH B. FABIAN
Senior Litigation Counsel
NICOLE MURLEY
Trial Attorney
Office of Immigration Litigation
U.S. Department of Justice
Box 868, Ben Franklin Station
Washington, DC 20442
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

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15 ADAM L. BRAVERMAN
United States Attorney
16 SAMUEL W. BETTWY
17 Assistant U.S. Attorney
California Bar No. 94918
18 Office of the U.S. Attorney
19 880 Front Street, Room 6293
San Diego, CA 92101-8893
20 619-546-7125
21 619-546-7751 (fax)
22 Attorneys for Federal Respondents23 Defendants
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Lee Gelernt*
Judy Rabinovitz*
Anand Balakrishnan*
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES
UNION FOUNDATION
125 Broad St., 18th Floor
New York, NY 10004
T: [phone]
F: [phone]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
Bardis Vakili (SBN 247783)
ACLU FOUNDATION OF
SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL
COUNTIES
P.O. Box 87131
San Diego, CA 92138-7131
T: [phone]
F: [phone]
[e-mail]
Stephen B. Kang (SBN 292280)
Spencer E. Amdur (SBN 320069)
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES
UNION FOUNDATION
39 Drumm Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
T: [phone]
F: [phone]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
Attorneys for PetitionersPlaintiffs
*Admitted Pro Hac Vice

Case 3:18-cv-00428-DMS-MDD Document 191 Filed 08/16/18 PageID.3237 Page 2 of 8

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

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MS. L, et al.,

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Case No. 18cv428 DMS MDD

Petitioners-Plaintiffs,
JOINT STATUS REPORT

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vs.

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U.S. IMMIGRATION AND
CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT, et
al.,

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Respondents-Defendants.

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The Court ordered the parties to file a joint status report on August 16, 2018,

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13 in anticipation of the telephonic status conference scheduled for August 17, 2018,
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at 1:00 p.m. PST. The parties submit this joint status report in accordance with the

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16 Court’s instruction.
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DEFENDANTS’ POSITIONS
A. Update on Reunifications

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Defendants report the current status on reunification of families with

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children ages 0 through 17 in the table below. The data presented in this section

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reflects approximate numbers maintained by ORR as of 12:00 p.m. Eastern on

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August 16, 2018. These numbers are dynamic and continue to change as more

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reunifications or discharges occur.

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Category

Children
under
age 5
103

Children
age 5 and
above
2,551

Total
children
ages 0 - 17
2,654

Children discharged by being reunified with parents in
ICE custody under the government’s plan

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1,570

1,616

Children discharged under other appropriate
circumstances (these include discharges to other
sponsors [such as situations where the child’s parent is
not eligible for reunification], reunifications with
parents in DHS custody earlier in the process, or
children that turned 18)

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440

473

Total children discharged

79

2,010

2,089

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541

565

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153

154

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78

83

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0
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360

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366

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Total number of possible children of potential class
members originally identified

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Discharged Children

Children Remaining in Care with ORR
Children remaining in care, where the adult associated
with the child is not eligible for reunification or is not
available for discharge at this time:
• Children still in care where further review shows
they were not separated from parents by DHS:
• Parent indicated desire against reunification
(includes a significant number of parents outside
the U.S.):
• Reunification prevented or potentially affected
by separate litigation:
• Adult red flag background check:
• Adult red flag other case review:
• Adult released to interior:
• Adult in other federal, state, or local custody:
• Adult location under case file review
• Adult presently outside the U.S.:

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The total number of children remaining in care (565) is approximate because

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information about associated adults. The groups of children in ORR care in the

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associated with those children—add up to more than 565 because some adults fall

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an indication of a desire against reunification).

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Also, the parameters for certain categories of groups of children in ORR care

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First, the category from the prior Joint Status Report entitled “Adult released to the

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9 interior or other custody, and contact not yet made,” is now subdivided into the
10 following three categories: “Adult released into the interior”; “Adult in other
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federal, state, or local custody”; and “Adult location under case file review”.

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13 Second, the category from the prior Joint Status Report entitled “Adult outside the
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presently outside the U.S. It previously included additional adults who had been

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17 outside the U.S. in the past.
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B. Plans for the Reunification of Released and Removed Class Members
Defendants are moving forward with reunifications for released class

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21 members as those class members are located and contacted.
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The parties met and conferred numerous times regarding Defendants’ plan to
reunify removed class members, and have agreed on revisions to the plan that

25 resolve any concerns raised by Plaintiffs. That revised plan was filed with the
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C. Information Sharing
At the last status conference the Court ordered Defendants to provide certain
information requested by Plaintiffs by August 15, 2018. By agreement of the

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that deadline, with one exception: information regarding a subset of the parents

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9 who declined reunification with their children. Defendants will provide
10 information regarding parents who have declined reunification with children
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presently in ORR custody by the deadline. Defendants, however, require

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13 additional time to provide the same information regarding parents who declined
14 reunification with children who are no longer in ORR custody.
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ORR’s data efforts have been focused primarily on children who are still in

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17 ORR care and custody, in order to reunify them with their parents as quickly as
18 possible. There are a large number of children who have been discharged from
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ORR’s care in a variety of ways. For example, some of those children were
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21 reunified with the parent from whom they were originally separated, while others
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manual review of each discharged child’s file—together with cross-checking
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25 against additional data sources—is required to ascertain whether and how
26 reunification was declined by a parent. ORR believes that additional time is
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required to conduct such an analysis reliably and without affecting ORR’s ongoing

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discrete subset of data, Defendants request that they be permitted to provide the

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Since the last status conference, the parties have discussed questions raised
by Plaintiffs as to situations involving specific individuals. However, Plaintiffs

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II.

PLAINTIFFS’ POSITION
Plaintiffs and the Steering Committee have proceeded to contacting removed

parents. In last week’s JSR, Plaintiffs made various requests for data; Plaintiffs

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16 agreed earlier this week to extend the deadline for those data requests to Friday,
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18cv428 DMS MDD

Case 3:18-cv-00428-DMS-MDD Document 191 Filed 08/16/18 PageID.3242 Page 7 of 8

1 DATED: August 16, 2018

Respectfully submitted,

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/s/ Lee Gelernt
Lee Gelernt*
Judy Rabinovitz*
Anand Balakrishnan*
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION
FOUNDATION
125 Broad St., 18th Floor
New York, NY 10004
T: [phone]
F: [phone]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

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Bardis Vakili (SBN 247783)
ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO
& IMPERIAL COUNTIES
P.O. Box 87131
San Diego, CA 92138-7131
T: [phone]
F: [phone]
[e-mail]

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Stephen B. Kang (SBN 292280)
Spencer E. Amdur (SBN 320069)
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION
FOUNDATION
39 Drumm Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
T: [phone]
F: [phone]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
Attorneys for Petitioners-Plaintiffs
*Admitted Pro Hac Vice

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18cv428 DMS MDD

Case 3:18-cv-00428-DMS-MDD Document 191 Filed 08/16/18 PageID.3243 Page 8 of 8

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CHAD A. READLER
Acting Assistant Attorney General
SCOTT G. STEWART
Deputy Assistant Attorney General
WILLIAM C. PEACHEY
Director
WILLIAM C. SILVIS
Assistant Director

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/s/ Sarah B. Fabian
SARAH B. FABIAN
Senior Litigation Counsel
NICOLE MURLEY
Trial Attorney
Office of Immigration Litigation
Civil Division
U.S. Department of Justice
P.O. Box 868, Ben Franklin Station
Washington, DC 20044
[phone]
[phone] (facsimile)
[e-mail]
ADAM L. BRAVERMAN
United States Attorney
SAMUEL W. BETTWY
Assistant U.S. Attorney
Attorneys for Respondents-Defendants

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18cv428 DMS MDD