Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 168 Filed 10/22/18 Page 1 of 14 THE HONORABLE JAMES L. ROBART 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 8 9 JOHN DOE, et al., 10 11 12 CASE NO. C17-0178JLR Plaintiffs, v. DONALD TRUMP, et al., 13 DECLARATION OF YOUSTINA YOUSSEF IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS’ JOINT MOTION TO COMPEL Defendants. 14 15 JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE, et al., Plaintiffs, 16 17 18 CASE NO. C17-1707JLR v. (RELATING TO BOTH CASES) DONALD TRUMP, et al., Defendants. 19 20 21 I, Youstina Youssef, declare as follows: 22 1. I am a fellow at the International Refugee Assistance Project (“IRAP”). IRAP was 23 founded in 2008 as the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project to help Iraqis whose lives were in danger 24 because of the assistance they provided to the United States during and after the 2003 invasion of 25 Iraq. The scope of IRAP’s work has significantly expanded since then and the organization now 26 27 28 DECL. OF YOUSTINA YOUSSEF ISO PLAINTIFFS’ JOINT MOTION TO COMPEL (No. 17-cv-0178-JLR) Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 T: 206.359.8000 / F: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 168 Filed 10/22/18 Page 2 of 14 1 assists refugees from around the world, 1 but IRAP principally assists refugees and other displaced 2 persons located in the Middle East. IRAP has offices in Jordan and Lebanon. 2. 3 4 applying for admission to the United States through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. 3. 5 6 7 I work under the supervision of IRAP direct services attorneys who assist refugees I. I submit this declaration in support of Plaintiffs’ Joint Motion to Compel. Method of Analysis 4. In preparing the charts and graphs below, I relied exclusively on Defendants’ 8 responses to Plaintiffs’ First and Third Sets of Interrogatories, which primarily consisted of 27 9 Exhibits, each of which contained one or more spreadsheets of data. Specifically, I relied on 10 Excel documents that I understand were created by converting Defendants’ Exhibits A – AA from 11 PDF format to Excel format. I used the functions within Excel to produce the charts and graphs, 12 as further described below. 13 5. The timeframe covered by most of Defendants’ Exhibits A – U is October 22, 14 2017 to September 1, 2018, and the timeframe covered by Defendants’ Exhibits V – AA is 15 October 22, 2017 to September 24, 2018. 2 Unless otherwise indicated below, I chose to include 16 data from the full timeframe reflected in the Exhibit or Exhibits upon which I relied. 17 6. I decided to generally not include follow-to-join (FTJ) refugees in the graphs and 18 charts to avoid confusion or inappropriate comparisons: Defendants’ Exhibits frequently provide 19 data only for those FTJ refugees who were processed in Kenya and Thailand. Where Defendants’ 20 Exhibits provide data about FTJ refugees processed outside of Kenya and Thailand, the data sets 21 appear to come from a different system that tracks different data in a different format. 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 IRAP rebranded as the International Refugee Assistance Project in 2015. 2 Defendants’ responses to Plaintiffs’ First and Third Sets of Interrogatories state that the data is tracked from October 23, 2017 to August 27, 2018 and September 24, 2018, respectively. Defendants’ Supp. First Set of Interrogatory Responses, at 8; Defendants’ Third Set of Interrogatory Responses, at 9. However, the spreadsheets Defendants produced appear to begin tracking data on October 22, 2017 and, with respect to the responses to the First Set of Interrogatories, to generally stop tracking data on September 1, 2018 (the end of the week beginning on August 26, 2018). Because the data in Defendants’ spreadsheets are the source of information for the graphs and charts below, I rely on the dates reflected in the spreadsheets. DECL. OF YOUSTINA YOUSSEF ISO PLAINTIFFS’ JOINT MOTION TO COMPEL (No. 17-cv-0178-JLR) – 2 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 T: 206.359.8000 / F: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 168 Filed 10/22/18 Page 3 of 14 1 2 II. Refugees Arrival Data (Excluding Follow-to-Join Refugees) 7. Chart A below is a true and accurate reproduction of the graph I produced by 3 plotting the weekly data of arrivals of non-SAO refugees using the second data column of Exhibit 4 R (Arrived), and the weekly data of arrivals of SAO refugees using the fourth data column of 5 Exhibit R. Specifically, I input the weekly arrivals data and corresponding dates into the graph 6 function of Excel, which resulted in a graph with time on the x-axis, refugees arrived on the y- 7 axis, one line depicting non-SAO refugees arrived, and one line depicting SAO refugees arrived. 8 I inserted a vertical black line at December 23, 2017—the date of the injunction. The data in 9 Exhibit R ends with the week beginning on August 19, 2018. 10 8. Chart A demonstrates that the number of SAO refugees arriving in the United 11 States has not significantly increased since the date of the injunction, and there were zero SAO 12 refugee arrivals for most of the period before the injunction. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 9. Chart B below is a true and accurate reproduction of the pie chart I produced using 26 the final row of Defendants’ Exhibit R (Arrived), which provides the sum totals of the weekly 27 data of refugee arrivals provided in the preceding rows. Specifically, I took the number of 28 individual refugee arrivals from non-SAO countries in the last row of the second data column and DECL. OF YOUSTINA YOUSSEF ISO PLAINTIFFS’ JOINT MOTION TO COMPEL (No. 17-cv-0178-JLR) – 3 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 T: 206.359.8000 / F: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 168 Filed 10/22/18 Page 4 of 14 1 the number of individual refugee arrivals from SAO countries in the last row of the fourth data 2 column. I used the pie chart function in Excel to produce a pie chart in which these two numbers 3 comprise the total refugee arrivals. The resulting pie chart shows the absolute numbers of refugee 4 arrivals (excluding FTJs) as well as the percentages of the total comprised by refugees from SAO 5 countries and refugees from non-SAO countries rounded to the nearest tenth of one percent. 3 10. 6 Chart B demonstrates that from the injunction to the end of the data provided, only 7 0.7 percent of the refugees who arrived in the United States were from SAO countries (97 people) 8 and the remaining 99.3 percent were refugees from non-SAO countries (13,747 people). 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 // 21 // 22 // 23 // 24 // 25 // 26 27 28 3 Here, and for the pie charts below, I used the Excel division function to calculate the percentages to the first decimal place. DECL. OF YOUSTINA YOUSSEF ISO PLAINTIFFS’ JOINT MOTION TO COMPEL (No. 17-cv-0178-JLR) – 4 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 T: 206.359.8000 / F: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 168 Filed 10/22/18 Page 5 of 14 1 III. Refugees Ready for Departure on October 23, 2017 (Excluding Follow-to-Join Refugees) 2 3 11. Charts C and D below are true and accurate reproductions of the pie charts I 4 produced using data about refugees from SAO countries and from non-SAO countries who were 5 ready to depart on the date of the Agency Memo and how many of those individuals later arrived 6 in the United States. Specifically, with respect to the pie chart to the left in Charts C and D, I 7 took the numbers from the second and fourth data columns of Exhibit V (Ready for Departure), 8 corresponding to non-SAO refugees and SAO refugees respectively, and I used the pie chart 9 function in Excel to produce a pie chart in which these two numbers comprise the total number of 10 refugees ready for departure. The pie chart includes percentages of the total comprised by 11 refugees from SAO countries and refugees from non-SAO countries rounded to the nearest tenth 12 of one percent. 13 12. With respect to the pie chart on the right in Chart C, I took the number of SAO 14 refugees who arrived without additional processing in the fourth data column of Exhibit X 15 (Admitted Without Processing) and the number of SAO refugees who arrived after additional 16 processing in the fourth data column of Exhibit Y (Admitted With Processing), and I used the 17 Excel sum function to obtain the total number of ready for departure SAO refugees who arrived in 18 the United States. I used the Excel subtraction function to subtract the ready for departure SAO 19 refugees who arrived from the total number of ready for departure SAO refugees. I used the pie 20 chart function in Excel to produce a pie chart in which the number of SAO refugees who arrived 21 and the SAO refugees who have not arrived comprise the total number of SAO refugees who 22 were ready for departure on October 23, 2017. The pie chart includes percentages of the total 23 comprised by arrived and not arrived SAO refugees rounded to the nearest tenth of one percent. 24 13. With respect to the pie chart on the right in Chart D, I took the number of non- 25 SAO nationals who arrived without additional processing in the second data column of Exhibit X 26 and the number of non-SAO nationals who arrived after additional processing in the second data 27 column of Exhibit Y, and I used the Excel sum function to obtain the total number of ready for 28 departure non-SAO nationals who arrived in the United States. I used the Excel subtraction DECL. OF YOUSTINA YOUSSEF ISO PLAINTIFFS’ JOINT MOTION TO COMPEL (No. 17-cv-0178-JLR) – 5 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 T: 206.359.8000 / F: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 168 Filed 10/22/18 Page 6 of 14 1 function to subtract the ready for departure non-SAO refugees who arrived from the total number 2 of ready for departure non-SAO refugees. I used the pie chart function in Excel to produce a pie 3 chart in which the number of non-SAO refugees who arrived and the non-SAO refugees who have 4 not arrived comprise the total of non-SAO refugees who were ready for departure on October 23, 5 2017. The pie chart includes percentages of the total comprised by arrived and not arrived non- 6 SAO refugees rounded to the nearest tenth of one percent. 14. 7 Charts C and D demonstrate that while the vast majority (93.6 percent) of non- 8 SAO refugees who were ready for departure on the date of the Agency Memo ultimately arrived 9 in the United States, only a minority (40.3 percent) of similarly situated SAO refugees ultimately 10 arrived. 15. 11 Defendants’ Exhibits V, X, and Y also demonstrate that a total of 11 FTJ refugees 12 were ready for departure on October 24, 2017, and of those 4 were admitted to the United States 13 with or without additional processing. Just one of the follow-to-join refugees admitted to the 14 United States was a refugee from an SAO country. 15 // 16 // 17 // 18 // 19 // 20 // 21 // 22 // 23 // 24 // 25 // 26 // 27 // 28 // DECL. OF YOUSTINA YOUSSEF ISO PLAINTIFFS’ JOINT MOTION TO COMPEL (No. 17-cv-0178-JLR) – 6 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 T: 206.359.8000 / F: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 168 Filed 10/22/18 Page 7 of 14 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 // 26 // 27 // 28 // DECL. OF YOUSTINA YOUSSEF ISO PLAINTIFFS’ JOINT MOTION TO COMPEL (No. 17-cv-0178-JLR) – 7 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 T: 206.359.8000 / F: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 168 Filed 10/22/18 Page 8 of 14 1 IV. Comparisons with Arrival Data (Excluding Follow-to-Join Refugees) 16. 2 Chart E below is a true and accurate reproduction of the graph I produced by 3 plotting the running total of the weekly assurances of refugees from SAO countries using the 4 fourth data column of Exhibit Q (Assured), and the running total of the weekly arrivals in the 5 United States of refugees from SAO countries using the fourth data column of Exhibit R 6 (Arrived). Specifically, I input the weekly assured data, the weekly arrivals data, and 7 corresponding dates into the running total process of Excel, which resulted in a graph with time 8 on the x-axis, number of refugees on the y-axis, one line representing the running total of SAO 9 refugees assured, and one line representing the running total of SAO refugees who arrived in the 10 United States. I inserted a vertical black line at December 23, 2017. 17. 11 Chart F below is a true and accurate reproduction of the graph I produced by 12 plotting the running total of the weekly assurances of refugees from non-SAO countries using the 13 second data column of Exhibit Q, and the running total of the weekly arrivals in the United States 14 of refugees from non-SAO countries using the second data column of Exhibit R. Specifically, I 15 input the weekly assured data, the weekly arrivals data, and corresponding dates into the running 16 total process of Excel, which resulted in a graph with time on the x-axis, number of refugees on 17 the y-axis, one line representing the running total of non-SAO refugees assured, and one line 18 representing the running total of non-SAO refugees who arrived in the United States. I inserted a 19 vertical black line at December 23, 2017. 18. 20 Chart E demonstrates that in the weeks after the injunction, the running total of 21 SAO refugees with assurances increased substantially and continued to rise, but the number of 22 SAO refugees arriving in the United States barely increased at all. In contrast, Chart F shows that 23 the running total of non-SAO refugees arriving in the United States roughly followed the running 24 total of assured non-SAO refugees. 25 // 26 // 27 // 28 // DECL. OF YOUSTINA YOUSSEF ISO PLAINTIFFS’ JOINT MOTION TO COMPEL (No. 17-cv-0178-JLR) – 8 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 T: 206.359.8000 / F: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 168 Filed 10/22/18 Page 9 of 14 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 // 26 // 27 // 28 // DECL. OF YOUSTINA YOUSSEF ISO PLAINTIFFS’ JOINT MOTION TO COMPEL (No. 17-cv-0178-JLR) – 9 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 T: 206.359.8000 / F: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 168 Filed 10/22/18 Page 10 of 14 1 V. USCIS Interviews (Excluding Follow-to-Join Refugees) 19. 2 Chart G below is a true and accurate reproduction of the graph I produced by 3 plotting the weekly data of refugees from non-SAO countries interviewed by the Department of 4 Homeland Security (DHS) using the second data column of Exhibit J (Interviewed), and of 5 refugees from SAO countries interviewed by DHS using the fourth data column of Exhibit J. 6 Specifically, I input the weekly interview data and corresponding dates into the graph function of 7 Excel, which resulted in a graph with time on the x-axis, arrivals data on the y-axis, one line 8 representing non-SAO refugee interviews, and one line representing SAO refugee interviews. I 9 inserted a vertical black line at December 23, 2017. 20. 10 Chart G demonstrates that even after the injunction, the number of refugees from 11 non-SAO countries interviewed by DHS was substantially lower than the number of refugees 12 from SAO countries interviewed. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 // 24 // 25 // 26 // 27 // 28 // DECL. OF YOUSTINA YOUSSEF ISO PLAINTIFFS’ JOINT MOTION TO COMPEL (No. 17-cv-0178-JLR) – 10 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 T: 206.359.8000 / F: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 168 Filed 10/22/18 Page 11 of 14 1 2 VI. Follow-to-Join Refugees 21. Chart H below is a true and accurate reproduction of the graph I produced by 3 plotting the running total of the weekly number of I-730 Petitions filed using the third data row of 4 the second spreadsheet in Exhibit H (Petitions Filed by Country of Citizenship), and the running 5 total of the weekly number of I-730 Petitions sent to overseas posts using the second data column 6 of Exhibit I (Petitions Transferred). 4 Specifically, I input the weekly Petitions filed data, the 7 weekly Petitions transferred data, and corresponding dates into the running total process of Excel, 8 which resulted in a graph with time on the x-axis, number of Petitions on the y-axis, one line 9 representing the running total of Petitions filed, and one line representing the running total of 10 Petitions transferred to overseas posts. Defendants’ Exhibit H begins tracking data on October 11 24, 2017 and ends on August 27, 2018. Exhibit I tracks data by the number of the week within 12 the year (first, second, third, and so on). Exhibit I provides data through the 35th week of 2018, a 13 week that ends on the 245th day of 2018 (35 weeks times 7 days per week); thus, the data set ends 14 on September 2. I inserted a vertical black line at December 23, 2017. 15 22. Chart I below is a true and accurate reproduction of the pie chart I produced using 16 data about whether the I-730 Petitions transferred to overseas posts after December 23, 2017 17 corresponded to refugees from SAO countries based on the data in Exhibit I. Specifically, I used 18 the Excel sum function to obtain the sum of the numbers in the second data column of Exhibit I, 19 beginning with the 51st week of 2017 5 and ending with the 35th week of 2018. This sum 20 represented the total number of I-730 Petitions transferred. I then used the Excel sum function to 21 obtain the sum of the numbers in the third data column of Exhibit I, beginning with the 51st week 22 of 2017 and ending with the 35th week of 2018. This sum represented the number of I-730 23 Petitions transferred overseas corresponding to SAO refugees. I used the Excel subtraction 24 function to subtract the latter number from the former to obtain the number of I-730 Petitions 25 26 27 28 4 Defendants explained in their Supplemental Response to Plaintiffs’ First Set of Interrogatories that any week not reflected by a row in Exhibit I represents a week in which no Petitions were transferred. 5 While the 51st week begins on December 18, 2017, there were zero I-730 Petitions sent overseas for the entire week, and thus, there is no data included from the days prior to the December 23rd injunction. DECL. OF YOUSTINA YOUSSEF ISO PLAINTIFFS’ JOINT MOTION TO COMPEL (No. 17-cv-0178-JLR) – 11 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 T: 206.359.8000 / F: 206.359.9000 Case 2:17-cv-00178-JLR Document 168 Filed 10/22/18 Page 12 of 14 1 transferred corresponding to non-SAO refugees. I used the pie chart function in Excel to produce 2 a pie chart in which the number of I-730 Petitions transferred corresponding to SAO refugees and 3 to non-SAO refugees comprised the total number of Petitions transferred to overseas posts, and 4 including the percentages each comprised of the total rounded to the nearest tenth of one percent. 5 23. Chart H shows that after the injunction, the running total of I-730 Petitions filed 6 steadily increased, but the running total of I-730 Petitions transferred overseas barely moved. 7 Chart I demonstrates that after the injunction, of the relatively small number of I-730 Petitions 8 transferred overseas, the vast majority (87.7 percent) corresponded to non-SAO refugees. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 DECL. OF YOUSTINA YOUSSEF ISO PLAINTIFFS’ JOINT MOTION TO COMPEL (No. 17-cv-0178-JLR) – 12 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 T: 206.359.8000 / F: 206.359.9000 aagmg??owmanAuN?o Case Document 168 Filed 10/22/18 Page 13 of 14 I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed this 22nd day of October, 2018, at New York, New York. DECL. OF YOUSTINA YOUSSEF ISO IFS AND DOE PLAINTIFF 8? MOTION TO COMPEL (No. C17-01781LR) l3 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 168 Filed 10/22/18 Page 14 of 14 1 2 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that on October 22, 2018, I caused to be electronically filed the foregoing 3 document with the Clerk of the Court using the CM/ECF system which will send notification of 4 such filing to all of the registered CM/ECF users for this case. 5 DATED this 22nd day of October, 2018. 6 /s/ Tyler Roberts 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE (No. 17-cv-0178-JLR) – 1 Perkins Coie LLP 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 T: 206.359.8000 / F: 206.359.9000