Declaration — East Bay Sanctuary v. Trump

Record facts

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California · No. 4:18-cv-06810-JST · Doc. 84-1 · 2018-12-06 · Docket on CourtListener

Full text

CORRECTED DECLARATION OF NICOLE RAMOS 
 
I, Nicole Ramos, declare under the penalty of perjury pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746: 
1. I make this declaration based on my personal knowledge except where I have indicated 
otherwise.  If called as a witness, I would testify competently and truthfully to these 
matters. 
2. I am a U.S. licensed attorney practicing in the area of immigration law and human rights.  
I am barred by the State of New York, and I am a former Assistant Federal Public 
Defender.  I am over the age of 18. 
3. I am the Project Director for the Border Rights Project of Al Otro Lado, a nonprofit 
organization based in Los Angeles.   
4. My colleagues and I currently represent about twenty unaccompanied children who wish 
to apply for asylum in the United States.   
5. Because of the interim final rule, Al Otro Lado has been and, without an injunction will 
be, forced to divert substantial resources away from our core mission of providing legal 
services to individuals and families with children, to instead address the basic needs of 
unaccompanied children, who are our most vulnerable clients and who are presenting the 
most urgent humanitarian concerns in Tijuana.  As detailed below, Mexican officials are 
not permitting unaccompanied minors – including numerous minors we represent – to 
enter the United States at ports of entry, causing an enormous concentration of vulnerable 
minors facing danger and desperation in Tijuana.  The interim final rule categorically 
prevents our clients and others from obtaining asylum should they cross between ports of 
entry, and thus prevents children from crossing out of necessity between ports to seek 
asylum.  Absent an injunction of the rule’s operation, therefore, the humanitarian crisis in 
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Tijuana – and the corresponding, overwhelming demands on our time and resources to 
assist these minors – will escalate and divert our focus from our core mission.  
6. Every one of the children Al Otro Lado is representing has articulated to me or a member 
of our staff an intent to apply for asylum in the United States.  In my opinion, most of the 
children have strong claims.  Several of the children are LGBT and have faced severe 
persecution as a result.  Others have been forced to engage in child labor. Some have 
family members who have been targeted for violence, putting the children at serious risk 
because of their family relationships.  One child from Honduras was forced to watch the 
murder of his cousin; after that, he fled because he understood his life was at risk because 
of his family relationship.  Several of the children fled after corrupt police perceived 
them to be informants.  Should the interim final rule not be enjoined, they would be stuck 
in Tijuana, unable to be processed at a port of entry there, yet unable to cross between 
ports to seek asylum.  
7. Advising and assisting our unaccompanied minor clients has been particularly time-
consuming and emotionally draining.  It has required staff on the Border Rights Project to 
shift our focus away from our core mission of providing legal services in order to focus 
almost exclusively on providing extensive non-legal services to unaccompanied minors.   
8. As my colleague, Erika Pinheiro, explained in her supplemental declaration executed on 
November 16, 2018, and filed in this case, these unaccompanied children have no way to 
apply for asylum in the United States.  Prior to the TRO, and without an injunction in 
force, they will be categorically ineligible for asylum if they enter between ports.  They 
also are not being allowed to apply for asylum at ports of entry for the reasons detailed in 
the declaration.  
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9. Because unaccompanied children cannot apply on their own for asylum at ports of entry, 
on November 21, nine Al Otro Lado legal observers escorted eight unaccompanied 
children directly to the San Ysidro port of entry so that they could try to present 
themselves to CBP and express their desire to seek asylum.  This effort required many 
hours of preparation to advise the children on what to expect and orient the legal 
observers who would accompany them to the port of entry.  Although we were able to 
accompany these nine, we cannot accompany all children to the border due to resource 
constraints. 
10. Despite our efforts, Mexican officials apprehended two of the children near the end of the 
line—a 17-year-old from Honduras and a 15-year-old from Mexico—before we reached 
the port of entry.  These two children were detained by the Mexican immigration 
authorities for five days.  They were released only after I spent dozens of hours over the 
course of five days negotiating with the Mexican government to facilitate their 
release.  Both were severely traumatized as a result of this experience.   
11. Our staff has worked many more hours than usual to address the non-legal needs of our 
unaccompanied minor clients, including helping to find them accommodations and 
coordinating with a local youth shelter to provide transportation.  Immediately after the 
interim final rule was announced, up to 15 children at a time were waiting in our office 
around the clock while we arranged their accommodations.  Our office often felt more 
like a daycare center than a legal services organization.  Because our office was being 
used to shelter our unaccompanied minor clients, we could not spend as much time with 
our other clients.   
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12. After these clients moved to a local youth shelter, one of our attorneys spent several 
hours purchasing cell phones to make sure the children could communicate with us.  That 
attorney’s time would otherwise have been spent on casework. 
13. Al Otro Lado has also spent countless hours attending to the emotional and mental health 
needs of our unaccompanied minor clients.  Some of them have expressed suicidal 
thoughts.  Currently, two of our staff members spend about half their time addressing the 
needs of our unaccompanied child clients.   
14. Conditions for asylum seekers on the Mexican side of the border have become 
increasingly intolerable. 
15. The Tijuana government opened up the Benito Juarez Sports Complex (“Benito Juarez”) 
as a temporary shelter/camp for the migrants.  I have visited Benito Juarez on several 
occasions.  I have witnessed incredibly squalid conditions, with many migrants, including 
pregnant women and children, sleeping in the dirt with only plastic sheeting to protect 
them from the elements. I saw migrants sleeping in shelters made from branches that had 
fallen from the trees. Many migrants were suffering from respiratory illnesses, as 
evidenced by their persistent coughs.  
16.  More than 5,800 migrants had taken shelter at this outdoor facility by the end of 
November.  This figure represents about three times the capacity of the facility. Migrants 
formed hours-long lines to get food and water, and migrants reported that there was not 
enough food for everyone. People do not have basic necessities, including diapers, 
blankets, or warm clothes.   
17. The safety of the migrants at the camp is of grave concern.  Recently, twenty migrants 
were kidnapped outside the sports complex.  Despite promises of paid work, these 
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