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).

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Case 3:18-cv-00428-DMS-MDD Document 191 Filed 08/16/18 PageID.3236 Page 1 of 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 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: (202) 532-4824 Fax: (202) 616-8962 14 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 24 25 26 27 28 Lee Gelernt* Judy Rabinovitz* Anand Balakrishnan* AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION 125 Broad St., 18th Floor New York, NY 10004 T: (212) 549-2660 F: (212) 549-2654 lgelernt@aclu.org jrabinovitz@aclu.org abalakrishnan@aclu.org Bardis Vakili (SBN 247783) ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES P.O. Box 87131 San Diego, CA 92138-7131 T: (619) 398-4485 F: (619) 232-0036 bvakili@aclusandiego.org Stephen B. Kang (SBN 292280) Spencer E. Amdur (SBN 320069) AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION 39 Drumm Street San Francisco, CA 94111 T: (415) 343-1198 F: (415) 395-0950 skang@aclu.org samdur@aclu.org 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 1 2 MS. L, et al., 3 4 Case No. 18cv428 DMS MDD Petitioners-Plaintiffs, JOINT STATUS REPORT 5 vs. 6 U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT, et al., 7 8 9 Respondents-Defendants. 10 11 The Court ordered the parties to file a joint status report on August 16, 2018, 12 13 in anticipation of the telephonic status conference scheduled for August 17, 2018, 14 at 1:00 p.m. PST. The parties submit this joint status report in accordance with the 15 16 Court’s instruction. 17 I. 18 19 DEFENDANTS’ POSITIONS A. Update on Reunifications 20 Defendants report the current status on reunification of families with 21 children ages 0 through 17 in the table below. The data presented in this section 22 23 reflects approximate numbers maintained by ORR as of 12:00 p.m. Eastern on 24 August 16, 2018. These numbers are dynamic and continue to change as more 25 reunifications or discharges occur. 26 27 28 1 18cv428 DMS MDD Case 3:18-cv-00428-DMS-MDD Document 191 Filed 08/16/18 PageID.3238 Page 3 of 8 1 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 46 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) 33 440 473 Total children discharged 79 2,010 2,089 24 541 565 4 42 46 1 153 154 5 78 83 9 1 1 3 0 6 27 36 8 16 10 360 36 37 9 19 10 366 2 3 Total number of possible children of potential class members originally identified 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 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.: 22 23 The total number of children remaining in care (565) is approximate because 24 the data on children in care is still being updated to reflect discharges and 25 information about associated adults. The groups of children in ORR care in the 26 27 categories listed in the table above—which are tied to the categories of adults 28 2 18cv428 DMS MDD Case 3:18-cv-00428-DMS-MDD Document 191 Filed 08/16/18 PageID.3239 Page 4 of 8 1 associated with those children—add up to more than 565 because some adults fall 2 into more than one category (for example, a red flag on a background check plus 3 an indication of a desire against reunification). 4 5 Also, the parameters for certain categories of groups of children in ORR care 6 have been refined since the prior Joint Status Report filed on August 9, 2018. 7 First, the category from the prior Joint Status Report entitled “Adult released to the 8 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 11 federal, state, or local custody”; and “Adult location under case file review”. 12 13 Second, the category from the prior Joint Status Report entitled “Adult outside the 14 U.S.” is renamed “Adult presently outside the U.S.,” and includes only those adults 15 presently outside the U.S. It previously included additional adults who had been 16 17 outside the U.S. in the past. 18 19 B. Plans for the Reunification of Released and Removed Class Members Defendants are moving forward with reunifications for released class 20 21 members as those class members are located and contacted. 22 23 24 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 26 Court earlier today. 27 28 3 18cv428 DMS MDD Case 3:18-cv-00428-DMS-MDD Document 191 Filed 08/16/18 PageID.3240 Page 5 of 8 1 2 3 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 4 5 parties, that deadline was later extended to August 17, 2018. Defendants have 6 provided, or expect to provide, the information requested by Plaintiffs on or before 7 that deadline, with one exception: information regarding a subset of the parents 8 9 who declined reunification with their children. Defendants will provide 10 information regarding parents who have declined reunification with children 11 presently in ORR custody by the deadline. Defendants, however, require 12 13 additional time to provide the same information regarding parents who declined 14 reunification with children who are no longer in ORR custody. 15 ORR’s data efforts have been focused primarily on children who are still in 16 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 19 ORR’s care in a variety of ways. For example, some of those children were 20 21 reunified with the parent from whom they were originally separated, while others 22 were discharged to another parent, or discharged to another appropriate sponsor. A 23 manual review of each discharged child’s file—together with cross-checking 24 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 27 28 4 18cv428 DMS MDD Case 3:18-cv-00428-DMS-MDD Document 191 Filed 08/16/18 PageID.3241 Page 6 of 8 1 required to conduct such an analysis reliably and without affecting ORR’s ongoing 2 priority of reunifying children within its care as quickly as possible. For that 3 discrete subset of data, Defendants request that they be permitted to provide the 4 5 requested information by Wednesday, August 22, 2018. 6 7 Since the last status conference, the parties have discussed questions raised by Plaintiffs as to situations involving specific individuals. However, Plaintiffs 8 9 have not made any additional requests for generalized data or information to 10 Defendants. 11 12 13 14 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 15 16 agreed earlier this week to extend the deadline for those data requests to Friday, 17 August 17. 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 5 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, 2 /s/ Lee Gelernt Lee Gelernt* Judy Rabinovitz* Anand Balakrishnan* AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION 125 Broad St., 18th Floor New York, NY 10004 T: (212) 549-2660 F: (212) 549-2654 lgelernt@aclu.org jrabinovitz@aclu.org abalakrishnan@aclu.org 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Bardis Vakili (SBN 247783) ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES P.O. Box 87131 San Diego, CA 92138-7131 T: (619) 398-4485 F: (619) 232-0036 bvakili@aclusandiego.org 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Stephen B. Kang (SBN 292280) Spencer E. Amdur (SBN 320069) AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION 39 Drumm Street San Francisco, CA 94111 T: (415) 343-1198 F: (415) 395-0950 skang@aclu.org samdur@aclu.org Attorneys for Petitioners-Plaintiffs *Admitted Pro Hac Vice 27 28 6 18cv428 DMS MDD Case 3:18-cv-00428-DMS-MDD Document 191 Filed 08/16/18 PageID.3243 Page 8 of 8 1 2 3 4 5 CHAD A. READLER Acting Assistant Attorney General SCOTT G. STEWART Deputy Assistant Attorney General WILLIAM C. PEACHEY Director WILLIAM C. SILVIS Assistant Director 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 /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 (202) 532-4824 (202) 616-8962 (facsimile) sarah.b.fabian@usdoj.gov ADAM L. BRAVERMAN United States Attorney SAMUEL W. BETTWY Assistant U.S. Attorney Attorneys for Respondents-Defendants 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 7 18cv428 DMS MDD

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