Free Declaration in Support - District Court of California - California

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CECILLIA D. WANG (CSB #187782) LUCAS GUTTENTAG (CSB #90208) AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION IMMIGRANTS' RIGHTS PROJECT 39 Drumm Street San Francisco, CA 94111 Telephone: (415) 343-0775 Facsimile: (415) 395-0950 Email: [email protected] Attorneys for Plaintiffs-Petitioners *Additional counsel listed on following page

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION ALIA AHMADI, VLADIMIR MIKULICIC, IGOR OVCHINNIKOV, BILJANA PETROVIC, SERGEI SAPOZHNIKOV, EIMAN TAKY and YAN WANG, Case No. 07-CV-3455-WHA Plaintiffs-Petitioners, v. MICHAEL CHERTOFF, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security; ROBERT S. MUELLER III, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; ALBERTO GONZALES, Attorney General of the United States; EMILIO T. GONZALEZ, Director, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services; DAVID STILL, District Director, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, San Francisco District, Defendants-Respondents. DECLARATION OF SIN YEN LING IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS' MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION Judge: Hon. William A. Alsup Date: October 11, 2007 Time: 8:00 a.m.

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Additional counsel: JULIA HARUMI MASS (CSB #189649) ALAN L. SCHLOSSER (CSB #49957) AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA 39 Drumm Street San Francisco, CA 94111 Telephone: (415) 621-2493 Facsimile: (415) 255-8437 SIN YEN LING* JOREN LYONS (CSB #203403) ASIAN LAW CAUCUS 939 Market Street, Suite 201 San Francisco, CA 94103 Telephone: (415) 896-1701 Facsimile: (415) 896-1702 *Application for admission pro hac vice forthcoming

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Of counsel: TODD GALLINGER (CSB #238666) COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS (CAIR) ­ SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA 3000 Scott Boulevard, Suite 212 Santa Clara, CA 95054 Telephone: (408) 986-9874 Facsimile: (408) 986-9875

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I, Sin Yen Ling, hereby declare under penalty of perjury as follows: 1. I am a staff attorney at the Asian Law Caucus ("ALC"). Founded in 1972,

the Asian Law Caucus is the nation's oldest legal and civil rights organization serving low-income, elderly and limited-English speaking Asian and Pacific Islanders living in Northern California. Ninety percent of clients seeking the services of ALC are immigrants. In response to the needs of the community, ALC launched the Citizenship Project aimed at providing representation to the elderly and disabled who seek to become United States citizens. As a result, ALC has represented well over 200 immigrants with mental, physical and developmental disabilities in successfully applying for citizenship. 2. Since the government's implementation of FBI name checks as a

requirement for naturalization, the Asian Law Caucus has received inquiries from at least 230 individuals in the Northern District of California who have suffered prolonged delays in becoming citizens. All of these long-time lawful permanent residents have successfully passed their naturalization examinations and appear to meet all statutory requirements for naturalization, but have waited more than 120 days from the time of their naturalization examinations without receiving a decision from Citizenship and Immigration Services ("CIS"). Several of these clients have waited as long as four to five years for an FBI name check clearance. 3. While waiting for CIS to mail them an oath ceremony date, our clients

have sought in many ways to contact both CIS and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to inquire into the name check delay. Clients have made numerous appointments with CIS through CIS's online "Infopass" system, only to be told to wait for a response from their local immigration offices. Others have written to CIS or called CIS but were again told to wait for a background check clearance. In desperation, some of our clients have written to the FBI directly or have attempted to file an inquiry under the Freedom of Information Act. Many of these inquires have led to repetitive, uninformative responses from FBI stating that a background check is pending, and that the applicant should simply wait. Frustrated by these responses, our clients have reached out to local 3
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members of Congress for assistance in their naturalization applications. Again, these individuals have been given the same repetitive and uninformative responses from congressional staff members. 4. The vast majority of individuals who have contacted ALC about

prolonged naturalization delays do not have an effective individual remedy. Our lowincome clients do not have the financial resources to retain private counsel to file individual actions for district court naturalization under 8 U.S.C. § 1447(b). As a nonprofit organization with limited resources, ALC is not in a position to file hundreds of individual district court actions. Although most individuals who have contacted ALC have done everything in their power to expedite their applications, though telephone calls, letters, in-person visits to CIS offices, and congressional inquiries, those efforts have been unavailing. Thus, hundreds of individuals who have contacted ALC find their applications in an indefinite limbo. 5. Many members of the community served by ALC in the Northern District

of California are suffering particular harm from prolonged naturalization delays. For example, many individuals who have contacted ALC about naturalization delays are elderly or disabled persons who are at risk of losing subsistence-level SSI disability benefits, or representatives of such persons. The government provides certain noncitizens with SSI disability benefits for a limited seven-year period, on the assumption that such recipients will be able to naturalize within that period and then qualify for unlimited benefits as U.S. citizens. Because of systemic delays in naturalization, many individuals are at risk of losing their benefits, with catastrophic results including eviction, homelessness and the loss of basic daily necessities. Although CIS has instituted a policy of expediting the naturalization applications of persons at risk of losing SSI disability benefits, CIS requires such persons to contact the government and identify themselves. Because many individuals who would qualify for expedited processing are severely disabled or elderly and suffering from Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, ALC believes that CIS's expediting policy is often ineffective. 4
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6.

Many naturalization applicants suffering from prolonged delays are also

suffering the harm of prolonged separation from family members living abroad. Lawful permanent residents are far more limited than U.S. citizens in their ability to petition for the immigration of immediate relatives. The population served by ALC is particularly affected by the problem of family separation. Lawful permanent residents from China, India and the Philippines face particularly long waiting times ­ in some cases as long as 20 years ­ for visas for family members who wish to immigrate. Many such lawful permanent residents who have contacted ALC work in low-income jobs and are often unable to travel to see their family members because of the financial burden of traveling to Asia. Moreover, family members in Asia are rarely issued tourist visas to the United States. Thus, many ALC clients are separated from family members for extensive periods of time without even an opportunity for short visits. I hereby declare that the foregoing is true and accurate under penalty of perjury pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746. Dated: September 5, 2007 San Francisco, California

_________/s/______________ SIN YEN LING

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I, Cecillia D. Wang, declare as follows: I hereby certify that today I electronically filed the foregoing DECLARATION OF SIN YEN LING IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS' MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION with the Clerk of the Court using the ECF system, which will send notification of such filing to the following email addresses: Alan Lawrence Schlosser American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California Via ECF at [email protected] Via ECF at [email protected] Via ECF at [email protected] Via ECF at [email protected] Via ECF at [email protected] Via ECF at [email protected] Via ECF at [email protected]

Lucas Guttentag American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants' Rights Project Julia Harumi Mass American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California Edward A. Olsen United States Attorney's Office Elizabeth J. Stevens United States Department of Justice Jeffrey S. Robins United States Department of Justice

In addition, I hereby certify that on this 5th day of September 2007, true and correct copies of the DECLARATION OF SIN YEN LING IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS' MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION were served by U.S. Mail on the following counsel not registered for ECF: Sin Yen Ling Asian Law Caucus 939 Market Street, Suite 201 San Francisco, CA 94103 Todd Gallinger Council on American-Islamic Relations 3000 Scott Boulevard, Suite 212 Santa Clara, CA 95054

I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the above

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is true and correct. Dated: September 5, 2007 San Francisco, California _________/s/______________ CECILLIA D. WANG