Free Declaration in Support - District Court of California - California

Case 3:07-cv-03455-WHA

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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 LEONA KWON 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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DECLARATION OF LEONA KWON 07-CV-3455-WHA

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, Leona Kwon, hereby declare under penalty of perjury as follows: 1. I am employed on a part-time basis as a case assistant at the ACLU

Immigrants' Rights Project. In that capacity, I am responsible for responding to requests for assistance and intake calls regarding delays in naturalization. 2. Since I began my employment with the ACLU in February of 2007, I have

been in contact with fifty-five individuals in the Northern District of California who have suffered prolonged delays in becoming citizens. Based upon information submitted by these individuals, it appears that they are all qualifying lawful permanent residents who 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 individuals have waited as long as four to five years for an FBI name check clearance. The majority have waited at least two years since their naturalization examinations without a response. 3. While waiting for CIS to mail them an oath ceremony date, individuals

who have contacted the ACLU have sought on their own initiative 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 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. Many of the naturalization applicants who have contacted the ACLU are 3
DECLARATION OF LEONA KWON 07-CV-3455-WHA

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suffering prolonged separation from family members living abroad. These individuals report that as lawful permanent residents, they have been unable to petition for the immigration of their relatives living outside the United States. In many cases, this has caused emotional distress because the relatives living abroad are elderly parents of the naturalization applicant. 5. Some of the naturalization applicants who have contacted the ACLU are

suffering from limitations on their professional advancement because of the delay in naturalization. These individuals report that they are required to obtain security clearances that require U.S. citizenship in order to perform certain job duties. As a result of the delay in naturalization, these individuals have lost employment opportunities. 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/______________ LEONA KWON

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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 LEONA KWON 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 LEONA KWON 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