Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 100 Filed 01/04/18 Page 1 of 11 1 THE HONORABLE JAMES L. ROBART 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 7 8 9 JOHN DOES, et al., 10 11 12 CASE NO. C17-0178JLR Plaintiffs, v. DONALD TRUMP, et al., 13 Defendants. 14 15 JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE, et al., 16 17 18 19 JFS PLAINTIFFS’ OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANTS’ EMERGENCY MOTION FOR STAY OF PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION PENDING APPEAL (RELATING TO CASE NO. C17-1707JLR) CASE NO. C17-1707JLR Plaintiffs, v. DONALD TRUMP, et al., Defendants. 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 JFS PLAINTIFFS’ OPP. TO MOT. FOR STAY (No. 17-cv-1707-JLR) Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 Phone: 206.359.8000 Fax: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 100 Filed 01/04/18 Page 2 of 11 1 INTRODUCTION 2 3 4 5 6 Defendants’ “Emergency Motion for Stay of Preliminary Injunction Pending Appeal” (“Motion” or “Mot.”) (Dkt. No. 95) is a bald, procedurally improper attempt to modify and stay this Court’s injunction based on arguments that Defendants have already made or could have made to the Court previously. The Court should deny the Motion.1 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 ARGUMENT I. THE COURT SHOULD REJECT DEFENDANTS’ ATTEMPT TO UNILATERALLY MODIFY THE PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION. Defendants’ sweeping assertion in their Motion that they “do not understand the preliminary injunction to require affirmative action to undo any of the steps that were taken to implement [the October 23, 2017 Memorandum (“Agency Memo”)] prior to December 23” (Mot. at 4 (emphasis added)), is no less than an attempt to unilaterally modify and undermine this Court’s preliminary injunction order. After reviewing the parties’ evidence and the arguments on the preliminary injunction motion, this Court enjoined and restrained Defendants, from the date of the Court’s order, from enforcing provisions of the Agency Memo that “suspend the processing of FTJ refugee applications or suspend the admission of FTJ refugees into the United States,” as well as those provisions “that suspend or inhibit, including through the diversion of resources, the processing of refugee applications or the admission into the United States of refugees from SAO countries.” (Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order Issuing a Preliminary Injunction at 64, 65 (Dkt. No. 92) (“Order”).) This of course requires Defendants to take any action necessary to undo the implementation of the Agency Memo prospectively. For instance, if Defendants sent guidance suspending admission of refugees from the SAO countries or of FTJ beneficiaries, they must rescind it. If they issued instructions to 25 1 26 Defendants also request that the Court stay its injunction pending decision on this Motion. (See Mot. at 1.) Given the likelihood of irreparable harm to the Plaintiffs without the injunction in place (see Order at 56-58), that request should also be denied. JFS PLAINTIFFS’ OPP. TO MOT. FOR STAY (No. 17-cv-1707-JLR) – 1 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 Phone: 206.359.8000 Fax: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 100 Filed 01/04/18 Page 3 of 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 staff to de-prioritize the processing of applications from SAO countries, they must reverse those instructions. Defendants are required to restore the status quo ante—that is, the regular functioning of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program—which does not transform this injunction into a mandatory one. See Ariz. Dream Act Coal. v. Brewer, 757 F.3d 1053, 1060-61 (9th Cir. 2014) (holding that injunctions that prohibit enforcement of a new law or policy are prohibitory, not mandatory, even where policy had already taken effect prior to the filing of the lawsuit). The Court should reject Defendants’ attempt to gut the injunction—and thereby continue the ban that this Court found likely violates the INA and APA—through the guise of this stay motion. First, the attempt is procedurally improper because any request to modify the injunction at this stage should be brought in a motion for reconsideration.2 See Credit Suisse First Boston Corp. v. Grunwald, 400 F.3d 1119, 1124 (9th Cir. 2005) (holding that a motion to modify a preliminary injunction should be considered a motion to reconsider where it “seeks to relitigate the issues underlying” the original order). But motions for reconsideration “may not be used to raise arguments or present evidence for the first time when they could reasonably have been raised earlier in the litigation.” Kona Enters., Inc. v. Estate of Bishop, 229 F.3d 877, 890 (9th Cir. 2000). The appropriate time for Defendants to have raised arguments regarding the burden of the proposed injunction was in their opposition to the preliminary injunction motion. Instead of raising such arguments, Defendants characterized the Agency Memo as implementing “[a]t most” a short, inconsequential “delay” on the refugee program. (Defs.’ Opp. to JFS Pls.’ Mot. for Prelim. Inj. at 15, 28 (Dkt. No. 77) (“Defs.’ Opp.”).) After strategically foregoing the 22 23 24 25 26 2 Defendants are trying to have it both ways by asking the Court to reconsider its decision and simultaneously seeking to obtain a stay pending appeal. An appeal generally deprives the district court of jurisdiction, thus preventing it from reconsidering its prior ruling. See generally Griggs v. Provident Consumer Discount Co., 459 U.S. 56, 58 (1982) (“The filing of a notice of appeal is an event of jurisdictional significance—it confers jurisdiction on the court of appeals and divests the district court of its control over those aspects of the case involved in the appeal.”). JFS PLAINTIFFS’ OPP. TO MOT. FOR STAY (No. 17-cv-1707-JLR) – 2 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 Phone: 206.359.8000 Fax: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 100 Filed 01/04/18 Page 4 of 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 appropriate opportunity to make those arguments, Defendants do not get a second bite at the apple.3 Second, Defendants’ attempt to be excused from taking any “affirmative actions” necessary to undo implementation of the Agency Memo is vague, conclusory, and unsupported by any evidence. (See, e.g., Mot. at 5 (asserting, without any support or details, that “there is significant doubt about whether it would even be possible for Defendants to undo some of their prior decisions”).) In fact, the only concrete example of such action that Defendants provide— based solely on counsel’s unsworn statements—is canceling the circuit ride interviews that were scheduled for the second quarter of fiscal year 2018 pursuant to the Agency Memo’s direction to redirect resources away from processing applications for nationals of SAO countries. (See Mot. at 5.) Defendants are wrong that complying with the preliminary injunction requires canceling already-scheduled circuit rides,4 but their refusal to undo other unspecified actions that they took to implement the now-enjoined provisions of the Agency Memo remains wholly unsubstantiated and deeply concerning. At this juncture, Plaintiffs have no way to know even what those unspecified actions are.5 If Defendants have specific actions that they believe should be carved 17 3 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Moreover, motions for reconsideration are denied “absent highly unusual circumstances, unless the district court is presented with newly discovered evidence, committed clear error, or if there is an intervening change in the controlling law.” 389 Orange St. Partners v. Arnold, 179 F.3d 656, 665 (9th Cir. 1999); accord Local Rules W.D. Wash. LCR 7(h)(1); see also Connors v. Iqueque U.S.L.L.C., No C05-334JLR, 2005 WL 2237593, at *1 (W.D. Wash. Sept. 13, 2005) (Robart, J.) (stating that local rules disfavor such motions and they will “be denied unless there is a showing of (a) manifest error in the prior ruling, or (b) facts or legal authority which could not have been brought to the attention of the court earlier, through reasonable diligence”). Defendants have not pointed to any clear error in the Court’s Order, nor have they submitted any evidence that could not have been previously brought to the Court’s attention. 4 Complying with the injunction does require Defendants to restore circuit rides that would have been scheduled absent the Agency Memo. Defendants have provided no evidence why such interviews could not be restored without canceling existing interviews. 5 If anything, Defendants’ vague and unsubstantiated assertions highlight the need for discovery into implementation of the Agency Memo. On January 2, 2017, JFS Plaintiffs reached out to Defendants to schedule a Rule 26(f) conference. Defendants responded that, in their view, a conference is unnecessary because the Court vacated its December 14, 2017 Order, which ordered a Joint Status Report and a Discovery Plan in the consolidated case, Doe v. Trump. (See Minute Entry (Dec. 21, 2017) (Dkt. No. 87).) For avoidance of doubt, the JFS Plaintiffs— who have never agreed to any stay of discovery—respectfully request that the Court order the parties to confer pursuant to Rule 26(f). JFS PLAINTIFFS’ OPP. TO MOT. FOR STAY (No. 17-cv-1707-JLR) – 3 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 Phone: 206.359.8000 Fax: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 100 Filed 01/04/18 Page 5 of 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 out from the scope of the injunction, they must raise those issues through appropriate motions and support them with sufficient evidence. A “motion to stay” without details or evidence is not a procedurally proper or valid vehicle for modifying the scope of this Court’s injunction. II. THE COURT SHOULD DENY DEFENDANTS’ REQUEST TO STAY THE PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION. The remainder of Defendants’ contentions in the Motion rehash the same arguments that 7 this Court has already rejected and should reject again. On a motion to stay, the movant bears 8 the burden of (1) making a “strong showing” that they are likely to succeed on the merits; (2) 9 demonstrating that they “will be irreparably injured absent a stay”; (3) refuting the Court’s 10 finding that Plaintiffs will suffer substantial injury absent a preliminary injunction; and (4) 11 showing that the public interest does not favor immediate relief for the Plaintiffs. See Nken v. 12 Holder, 556 U.S. 418, 433-35 (2009) (explaining that the first two factors are “the most critical” 13 and that mere “possibility” of irreparable injury is insufficient for the second factor). Defendants 14 satisfy none of the stay factors. Cf. Washington v. Trump, 847 F.3d 1151, 1169 (9th Cir. 2017) 15 (denying the Government’s emergency motion for a stay pending appeal, even where “[a]spects 16 of the public interest favor[ed] both sides.”), cert.denied, 86 U.S.L.W. 3238 (U.S. Nov. 13, 2017) 17 (No. 17-5424). 18 A. 19 As Defendants themselves acknowledge, their arguments regarding likelihood of success 20 on the merits merely reassert previous arguments that this Court has already rejected. (See, e.g., 21 Mot. at 10 (“Yet as the Government previously argued . . . .” (emphasis added)).) The Court has 22 already considered, and rejected, each of Defendants’ arguments, including that the follow-to- 23 join suspension is consistent with 8 U.S.C. § 1157(c)(2)(A) (compare Mot. at 10 with Order at 24 48-51), that the SAO suspension is consistent with the Refugee Act of 1980 (compare Mot. at 10 25 with Order at 51-56 (holding that the Agency Memo “impermissibly redefine[s] the term 26 ‘refugee’” in the Refugee Act)), and that these suspensions are procedural rules that did not Defendants Have Not Shown Likelihood of Success on the Merits. JFS PLAINTIFFS’ OPP. TO MOT. FOR STAY (No. 17-cv-1707-JLR) – 4 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 Phone: 206.359.8000 Fax: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 100 Filed 01/04/18 Page 6 of 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 require notice-and-comment rulemaking (compare Mot. at 11-12 with Order at 39-46 (holding that the suspensions should have been subject to notice-and-comment rulemaking)).6 The Court has no reason to revisit these rulings here. B. Defendants Have Not Shown Irreparable Harm to the Government or Public Interest Favoring a Stay. Defendants’ arguments on irreparable harm and the public interest also conflict with what 7 this Court has already found—that the balance of hardships here favors Plaintiffs over 8 Defendants. (See Order at 59-61.) Defendants simply repeat old arguments about harm to 9 national security (see, e.g., Mot. at 2-3), but as this Court has already found: “Defendants . . . do 10 not point to any specific national security threat that the Agency Memo curtails,” nor have they 11 “put forth evidence of how a preliminary injunction might cause specific injury or harm in this 12 instance or how the recent preliminary injunction of EO-1’s or EO-2’s suspensions of all or 13 portions of USRAP caused any harm or injury.” (Order at 59-60.) Defendants cannot simply 14 rely on unspecified national-security concerns. See Ziglar v. Abbasi, 137 S. Ct. 1843, 1862 15 (2017) (explaining that “national-security concerns must not become a talisman used to ward off 16 inconvenient claims—a ‘label’ used to ‘cover a multitude of sins’” (citation omitted)); Hawaiʻi v. 17 Trump, No. 17-17168, 2017 WL 6554184, at *22 (9th Cir. Dec. 22, 2017) (holding that in the 18 absence of “sufficient findings that the ‘entry of certain classes of aliens would be detrimental to 19 the national interest,’” national security interests did not outweigh harm to plaintiffs (citation 20 omitted)); Washington v. Trump, 847 F.3d at 1168 (similarly holding that the Government’s 21 general interest in combating terrorism, without more, was insufficient to outweigh likely harm 22 to the plaintiffs). 23 24 6 25 26 Defendants argue that the Court’s rule would “threaten agencies’ abilities to take important actions . . . on a timely basis” (Mot. at 12), but there is no reason to believe that the Court’s careful application of rulemaking requirements to these suspensions throws open the door to rulemaking in every context. Moreover, as Plaintiffs’ counsel pointed out at oral argument, the APA contains a “good cause exception” to rulemaking. See 5 U.S.C. § 553(b)(B). The agencies chose not to invoke the exception here. JFS PLAINTIFFS’ OPP. TO MOT. FOR STAY (No. 17-cv-1707-JLR) – 5 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 Phone: 206.359.8000 Fax: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 100 Filed 01/04/18 Page 7 of 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Defendants further argue that the injunction “necessarily imposes irreparable harm on the Government and the public interest” because the government suffers injury whenever it is enjoined “‘from effectuating statutes enacted by representatives of its people’” (Mot. at 3 (citation omitted)), but this argument, too, was previously raised before this Court. (See Defs.’ Opp. at 28.) Moreover, the argument fails where this Court has held that the government is acting unlawfully—i.e., in a manner that violates a statute enacted by representatives of the people. See Hawaiʻi v. Trump, 2017 WL 6554184, at *23 (“It is axiomatic that the President must exercise his executive powers lawfully. When there are serious concerns that the President has not done so, the public interest is best served by ‘curtailing unlawful executive action.’” (quoting Texas v. United States, 809 F.3d 134, 187 (5th Cir. 2015), aff’d mem. per curiam by an equally divided court, 136 S. Ct. 2271 (2016))). Even if Defendants’ argument were accepted, the Ninth Circuit has emphasized that any such harm “‘is not dispositive of the balance of harms analysis.’” Latta v. Otter, 771 F.3d 496, 500 (9th Cir. 2014) (per curiam) (citation omitted) (balance of second and third Nken factors favored individuals whose constitutional rights were infringed over state’s interest in not having its laws and constitutional amendments enjoined). This vague assertion of harm cannot overcome the absence of evidence of likely harm to Defendants here, particularly when weighed against Plaintiffs’ evidence of irreparable harm. Defendants once again invite this Court to rely on the Supreme Court’s stay in Trump v. Hawaiʻi, No. 17A550, 2017 WL 5987406 (U.S. Dec. 4, 2017), and Trump v. International Refugee Assistance Project, No. 17A560, 2017 WL 5987435 (U.S. Dec. 4, 2017), to argue that the balance of equities tips in their favor (see Mot. at 2), but this Court has already declined to speculate on the reasons for those orders (see Order at 61-62 n.30 (“It is simply impossible to say how the Court considered the equities in the December 4, 2017, rulings, and whether the Court’s analysis applies here.”)). Defendants have offered no reason for the Court to revisit its decision. 26 JFS PLAINTIFFS’ OPP. TO MOT. FOR STAY (No. 17-cv-1707-JLR) – 6 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 Phone: 206.359.8000 Fax: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 100 Filed 01/04/18 Page 8 of 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Finally, Defendants’ lack of urgency in their actions belie their assertion of irreparable harm. See Ruckelshaus v. Monsanto Co., 463 U.S. 1315, 1318 (1983) (Blackmun, J., in chambers) (“[F]ailure to act with greater dispatch tends to blunt [one’s] claim of urgency and counsels against the grant of a stay.”). Defendants filed this “emergency” motion nearly a week after the Court’s Order—even though the Government can and does act more expeditiously in an emergency. See, e.g., Notice of Appeal at 1, Washington v. Trump, No. 2:17-cv-00141 (JLR) (W.D. Wash. filed Feb. 4, 2017) (Dkt. No. 53) (Government filed a Notice of Appeal the day after court issued temporary restraining order); Kiyemba v. Obama, 555 F.3d 1022, 1024 n.2 (D.C. Cir. 2009) (Government moved for a stay the same day as injunction directing release of detainees at Guantanamo Bay), vacated on other grounds, 559 U.S. 131 (2010), and reinstated as amended, 605 F.3d 1046 (D.C. Cir. 2010). Moreover, Defendants now contend that family members of one of the Plaintiffs, Joseph Doe, are moving ahead with travel to the United States, and “all I-730 refugee applicants who received valid travel letters on or before October 24, 2017, would be allowed to travel as planned.” (Decl. of Jennifer L. Smith in Support of Mot. ¶¶ 2-4 (Dkt. No. 95-1).) That Defendants have decided to permit Joseph Doe’s family and other followto-join beneficiaries from SAO countries to travel to the United States as long as they received valid travel letters prior to the Agency Memo confirms that the government will suffer no irreparable harm by allowing refugee admissions for follow-to-join beneficiaries and for refugees from the SAO countries to continue during the pendency of an appeal. C. Defendants Have Not Rebutted the Finding of Irreparable Harm to Plaintiffs. Defendants’ contentions regarding irreparable harm to Plaintiffs also reiterate arguments 23 that this Court has already rejected. Defendants spend almost two full pages explaining why 24 each Plaintiff, or a Plaintiff’s family member, is not on “the brink of travel” such that the 25 suspension purportedly would not concretely affect them (see Mot. at 7-9), even though the 26 Court already considered—at length—the circumstances of each individual Plaintiff (see Order JFS PLAINTIFFS’ OPP. TO MOT. FOR STAY (No. 17-cv-1707-JLR) – 7 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 Phone: 206.359.8000 Fax: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 100 Filed 01/04/18 Page 9 of 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 at 12-16, 20-25) and determined that “[a]ll of the individual Plaintiffs have been injured by prolonged separation from their family members. Those individual Plaintiffs stranded abroad in perilous circumstances are injured by their inability to travel to safety in the United States.” (Order at 16 (citations omitted).)7 The Court should not enter a stay of the injunction, as such a stay will irreparably harm the refugees abroad seeking safety, as well as the family members and others awaiting their arrival here in the United States. CONCLUSION For the foregoing reasons, Plaintiffs respectfully request that the Court deny Defendants’ Emergency Motion for Stay of Preliminary Injunction Pending Appeal. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 7 Defendants also ignore the Court’s finding of irreparable harm to the organizational Plaintiffs and their clients. (See Order at 25-28.) JFS PLAINTIFFS’ OPP. TO MOT. FOR STAY (No. 17-cv-1707-JLR) – 8 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 Phone: 206.359.8000 Fax: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 100 Filed 01/04/18 Page 10 of 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Respectfully submitted, s/ Lauren Watts Staniar David Burman, WSBA No. 10611 Lauren Watts Staniar, WSBA No. 48741 Tyler Roberts, WSBA No. 52688 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 Telephone: 206.359.8000 Facsimile: 206.359.9000 dburman@perkinscoie.com lstaniar@perkinscoie.com troberts@perkinscoie.com Mariko Hirose, Pro Hac Vice Deepa Alagesan, Pro Hac Vice Linda Evarts, Pro Hac Vice Kathryn C. Meyer, Pro Hac Vice International Refugee Assistance Project 40 Rector Street, 9th Floor New York, NY 10006 Tel: (646) 459-3044 mhirose@refugeerights.org dalagesan@refugeerights.org levarts@refugeerights.org kmeyer@refugeerights.org Elizabeth Sweet, Pro Hac Vice Mark Hetfield, Pro Hac Vice HIAS, Inc. 1300 Spring Street, Suite 500 Silver Spring, MD 20910 Tel: 301-844-7300 liz.sweet@hias.org mark.hetfield@hias.org DATED: January 4, 2018 Justin B. Cox, Pro Hac Vice National Immigration Law Center PO Box 170208 Atlanta, GA 30317 Tel: (678) 279-5441 Fax: (213) 639-3911 cox@nilc.org Karen C. Tumlin, Pro Hac Vice Melissa S. Keaney, Pro Hac Vice Esther H. Sung, Pro Hac Vice National Immigration Law Center 3450 Wilshire Blvd, #108-62 Los Angeles, CA 90010 Tel: (213) 639-3900 Fax: (213) 639-3911 tumlin@nilc.org keaney@nilc.org sung@nilc.org Lauren E. Aguiar, Pro Hac Vice Mollie M. Kornreich, Pro Hac Vice Abigail E. Davis, Pro Hac Vice Four Times Square New York, NY 10036 Tel: (212) 735-3000 Fax: (212) 735-2000 lauren.aguiar@probonolaw.com mollie.kornreich@probonolaw.com abigail.sheehan@probonolaw.com 22 Counsel for Plaintiffs Jewish Family Service, et al. 23 24 25 26 JFS PLAINTIFFS’ OPP. TO MOT. FOR STAY (No. 17-cv-1707-JLR) – 9 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 Phone: 206.359.8000 Fax: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 100 Filed 01/04/18 Page 11 of 11 1 2 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that on January 4, 2018, I electronically filed the foregoing document 3 with the Clerk of the Court using the CM/ECF system which will send notification of such filing 4 to all of the registered CM/ECF users for this case. 5 6 7 8 9 10 I hereby declare under penalty of perjury of the laws of the State of Washington that the foregoing in true and correct. DATED this 4th day of January, 2018. /s/ Lauren Watts Staniar Lauren Watts Staniar, WSBA No. 48741 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 JFS PLAINTIFFS’ OPP. TO MOT. FOR STAY (No. 17-cv-1707-JLR) – 10 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 Phone: 206.359.8000 Fax: 206.359.9000