State of Washington et al v. United States of America et al

Filing 29

SUPPLEMENT Defendants Appendix A, Dkt. #21 -1 by Defendants Alex Azar, Thomas Homan, Scott Lloyd, Kevin K. McAleenan, Kirstjen Nielsen, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III, Donald Trump, 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, United States of America (Attachments: #1 Exhibit 15, #2 Exhibit 16, #3 Exhibit 17, #4 Exhibit 18, #5 Exhibit 19, #6 Exhibit 20, #7 Exhibit 21, #8 Exhibit 22)(Murley, Nicole)

Exhibit 18

Case 3:18-cv-00428-DMS-MDD Document 107 Filed 07/13/18 PageID.2082 Page 1 of 5

1 CHAD A. READLER
Acting Assistant Attorney General
2 SCOTT G. STEWART
3 Deputy Assistant Attorney General
WILLIAM C. PEACHEY
4
Director
5 Office of Immigration Litigation
U.S. Department of Justice
6
WILLIAM C. SILVIS
7 Assistant Director
Office of Immigration Litigation
8
SARAH B. FABIAN
9 Senior Litigation Counsel
NICOLE MURLEY
10
Trial Attorney
11 Office of Immigration Litigation
U.S. Department of Justice
12
Box 868, Ben Franklin Station
13 Washington, DC 20442
Telephone: [phone]
14
Fax: [phone]
15
ADAM L. BRAVERMAN
16
United States Attorney
17 SAMUEL W. BETTWY
Assistant U.S. Attorney
18
California Bar No. 94918
19 Office of the U.S. Attorney
20 880 Front Street, Room 6293
San Diego, CA 92101-8893
21 619-546-7125
22 619-546-7751 (fax)
23 Attorneys for Federal Respondents-Defendants
24
25
26
27
28

Case 3:18-cv-00428-DMS-MDD Document 107 Filed 07/13/18 PageID.2083 Page 2 of 5

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

1
2

Case No. 18cv428 DMS MDD

MS. L, et al.,

3
Petitioners-Plaintiffs,

4

STATUS REPORT REGARDING
PLAN FOR COMPLIANCE

vs.

5

U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS
6 ENFORCEMENT, et al.,
7
Respondents-Defendants.
8
9
10

I.

STATUS REPORT
Defendants hereby submit this status report to apprise the Court of their

11
12 current plan for determining and reunifying the remaining class members with their
13 children, by July 26, 2018, as this Court’s orders require. The plan is set forth in the
14
Declaration of Chris Meekins, which is attached as Exhibit A. The agencies are
15
16 putting their plan into operation immediately.
17
18
19

The agencies designed the plan to achieve full compliance with this Court’s
orders, i.e., reunification of every remaining class member with their child where

20 this Court’s orders require reunification by July 26.

Meekins Dec. ¶ 28.

21 Reunifications under the plan should begin today and occur on a rolling basis. Id.
22
Unlike the plan put into place for the smaller cohort of children aged 0-4, the current
23
24 plan for children aged 5-17 does not involve DNA testing or full background
25 investigations of purported class members HHS conducts under the Trafficking
26
Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA). Id. ¶ 33. Nor does it
27
28
1

18cv428 DMS MDD

Case 3:18-cv-00428-DMS-MDD Document 107 Filed 07/13/18 PageID.2084 Page 3 of 5

1 require criminal background checks of other adult members of the household where
2 the class member and the child will live, or the submission of sponsor care plans
3
(which may require background checks of other care givers). Id.
4
5
6

While the agencies are committed to complying fully with the Court’s orders,
as explained in the attached declaration, the Department of Health and Human

7
8

Services (HHS) is concerned that the truncated procedures needed for compliance

9 present significant risks to child welfare. Meekins Dec. ¶¶ 37-49. As the declaration
10

explains, while most children should be safely reunited with their actual parents by

11
12

the Court’s deadline, the class is large and the agencies must proceed rapidly and

13 without the procedures that HHS would ordinarily use to place a child with a parent
14

safely. Id. HHS believes that this creates a material risk that dozens of children may

15
16

be reunited with individuals who falsely claimed to be their parents or placed into

17 situations that may pose a danger to the child. Id.
18

Indeed, the streamlined procedures that HHS used for the under-five cohort

19
20 identified several instances in which placement of a toddler or infant with a
21 purported parent was inappropriate. In one case, mandatory DNA testing prompted
22

one putative class member to concede her lack of parentage during testing. Meekins

23
24 Dec. ¶ 11. Another putative class member had a negative DNA match and conceded
25 that he was not a parent. Id. ¶ 10.
26

And in another case, HHS conducted a

background check of an adult member of the putative class member’s household and

27
28
2

18cv428 DMS MDD

Case 3:18-cv-00428-DMS-MDD Document 107 Filed 07/13/18 PageID.2085 Page 4 of 5

1 identified that the adult had a warrant for sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl. Id.
2 ¶¶ 14-16.
3
Defendants believe they are now taking all operationally feasible steps under
4
5 the Court’s orders to reunify hundreds of class members and children safely. But
6

going forward, HHS will not be able to do the same rigorous vetting that has already

7
8

prevented the placement of toddlers and infants with adults who were not their

9 parents or would have endangered them. Meekins Dec. ¶¶ 37-49. The Court’s
10

restriction of vetting of putative class members for the 5-and-up cohort will likely

11
12

mean that some children in that cohort will be at risk of improper placements. Id.

13 Given the agencies’ reported figures on the size of the 5-and-up cohort
14

(approximately 2,500 children), the number of placements of children with adults

15
16

who are not their parents or who might endanger them could be significant. Id. ¶ 47.

17 Defendants hope that such risks will not materialize, or do so as rarely as possible,
18

and the covered families will be reunited safely.

19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
3

18cv428 DMS MDD

Case 3:18-cv-00428-DMS-MDD Document 107 Filed 07/13/18 PageID.2086 Page 5 of 5

1 DATED: July 13, 2018

Respectfully submitted,

2

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

3
4
5
6
7
8

/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]

9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

ADAM L. BRAVERMAN
United States Attorney
SAMUEL W. BETTWY
Assistant U.S. Attorney

18
19
20
21

Attorneys for Respondents-Defendants

22
23
24
25
26
27
28
4

18cv428 DMS MDD