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

Filing 83

REPLY, filed 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, TO RESPONSE to #22 MOTION to Dismiss (Attachments: #1 Exhibit 1, #2 Exhibit 2)(Press, Joshua)

DEFENDANTS’
EXHIBIT 1

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
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R.G.H., et al.,

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Plaintiffs-Petitioners,

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v.
JEFFERSON BEAUREGARD SESSIONS,
Order to Show Cause

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Defendant-Respondent.
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New York, N.Y.
July 27, 2018
4:10 p.m.

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Before:
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HON. JED S. RAKOFF
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District Judge
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APPEARANCES

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GREENBURG TRAURIG
Attorneys for Plaintiffs-Petitioners
BY: CAROLINE HELLER
KEDAR S. BHATIA

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SAFE PASSAGE PROJECT
Attorneys for Plaintiffs-Petitioners
BY: REX CHEN
GUILLERMO STAMPUR

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GEOFFREY S. BERMAN
United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York
Attorneys for Defendant
BRANDON M. WATERMAN
Assistant United States Attorney
SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C.
[phone]

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(Case called)

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THE COURT:

Good afternoon everyone.

Thank you for

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your papers.

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relevant respects to a matter that came before me earlier this

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week, 18 CV 6654, in which the Legal Aid Society, representing

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nine children, raised essentially the same issues raised in the

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papers here and sought essentially the same relief.
On that occasion, after hearing from the government

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This appears to me to be identical in all

and after consultation with Judge Sabraw, who is overseeing the

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vast majority of these issues involving reunification in the

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federal court in California, I transferred that case to Judge

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Sabraw.

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matter coming up in a few hours and was kind enough to allow

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the Legal Aid lawyers to appear telephonically.

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On that occasion Judge Sabraw had a hearing in the

I have just been on the phone with Judge Sabraw, who

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indicated that if I were to transfer this new matter to him,

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coincidentally he is having a hearing on all aspects of the

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reunification process in approximately five minutes, and he

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would be very pleased to have counsel for the petitioners here

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participate in that conference if I transfer the case.

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In the expectation that I will probably do that in

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about two minutes, his number is 619-557-6262.

I told him that

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if I did transfer it and if you did want to appear there, there

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would be lawyers from Greenberg Traurig and from Safe Passage

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Project who would be calling.

He is ready to receive your call

SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C.
[phone]

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if that is the way things turn out.
The reason I transferred the other matter to Judge

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Sabraw is because this whole reunification process has many,

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many moving parts, and it doesn't make sense to have different

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judges in different districts trying to deal piecemeal with the

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issue.

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Furman, for example, just a week earlier had transferred

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another matter involving reunification to Judge Sabraw, and he

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is exercising on a daily basis oversight of all aspects of the

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There should be one judge looking at it overall.

Judge

reunification process.
Let me hear from petitioners' counsel as to why, if

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you do oppose, I should not just transfer this forthwith to

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Judge Sabraw, you can talk to him and make your arguments to

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him as soon as you can call him?

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MS. HELLER:

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for the plaintiff-petitioners.

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presents do make sense.

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having the petition transferred and having an opportunity to

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argue our case before Judge Sabraw.

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outstanding factor.

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Thank you, your Honor.

Caroline Heller

The arguments that your Honor

We would not necessarily object to

However, there is one

The Assistant U.S. Attorneys disagrees with us.

The

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Assistant United States Attorney who is here today even asked

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why are you not filing this in the Southern District of

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California.

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children are in New York.

Our response was because this is an emergency, the
But if the Assistant United States

SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C.
[phone]

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Attorney would agree that these children won't be transferred

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pending our application before Judge Sabraw, we could all come

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to an agreement that that would be fine.
Our concern here, your Honor, is that while this case

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is being transferred to the Southern District of California,

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the current request for a temporary restraining order is not

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before Judge Sabraw.
THE COURT:

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It will be.

The way it will work is this.

The last time I had three hours to get it to him.

This time I

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have five minutes.

But thanks to modern communication, that is

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not very difficult.

If I issue the order that I anticipate I

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will issue, I will immediately email to his chambers all your

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papers.

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couple of sentences, transferring the case to him forthwith.

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Therefore, it will be his case.

I will email my written order, which will only be a

As I say, he is perfectly happy to hear you this

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afternoon.

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should not be transferred, period, or they certainly shouldn't

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be transferred until you have ruled on our petition, and so

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forth.

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You are quite able to say to him the children

So I don't think you will be prejudiced.
I'm not quite sure why the Assistant U.S. Attorney put

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the question to you why you didn't file in California.

If the

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children are here, you have every legal right to file here,

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which you have done.

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before Judge Sabraw, who has the overall coordinating function

But it makes perfect sense to bring this

SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C.
[phone]

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in this very difficult matter.
I assume the government can assure me that no transfer

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is going to occur between now and when Judge Sabraw hears you

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in a few minutes.

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Let me hear from the government.

MR. WATERMAN:

Your Honor, for the reasons you

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articulated on Tuesday as well as this afternoon, we do believe

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this matter should be transferred forthwith to the Southern

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District of California.

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I don't believe that there is any imminent threat of

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these individuals being moved.

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the attorneys had asked for or filed a cease and desist letter

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and moving them was put on hold temporarily.

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it, there is no current movement in light of counsel's actions

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in the past day or two or communications with the government.

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THE COURT:

As I understand it, I believe

So I will transfer it.

As I understand

I am going to keep

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this short because I think it is important that the

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petitioners' counsel get right on the phone with Judge Sabraw.

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Give me no more than five minutes.

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Sabraw knows that the case has been transferred.

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him your papers.

I will make sure that Judge
I will email

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I will prepare my written order and have it docketed.

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If you want to come down to my chambers, you can get a copy of

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that as well.

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participate in his ongoing hearing, which has probably started

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about five minutes ago, that embraces all aspects of this.

Then you should call Judge Sabraw so you can

SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C.
[phone]

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I will say to you, as I said to the lawyers on

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Tuesday, if for any reason when you call they say who are you

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or anything like that, let me know, and I'll call and make sure

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that you get through, although there was no problem last

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Tuesday and Judge Sabraw was ready to hear the lawyers from New

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York.
MS. HELLER:

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Your Honor, may I clarify the telephone

number with you?

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THE COURT:

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MS. HELLER:

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THE COURT:

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MS. HELLER:

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THE COURT:

Give me five minutes, and then you can

MS. HELLER:

Should we go down to your chambers in

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Yes.
619-557-6262?
Correct.
Thank you, your Honor.

call.

five minutes to get copies of the papers?

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THE COURT:

Sure.

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THE CLERK:

That's 1340, one floor down.

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(Adjourned)

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SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C.
[phone]