1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 2 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 3 4 5 6 7 THE CITY OF SEATTLE, IMMIGRANT LEGAL RESOURCE CENTER, CATHOLIC LEGAL IMMIGRATION NETWORK, INC., SELF-HELP FOR THE ELDERLY, ONEAMERICA, AND CENTRAL AMERICAN RESOURCE CENTER OF CALIFORNIA, 8 9 10 11 12 13 Case No. 3:19-cv-07151-MMC Plaintiffs, vs. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, KEVIN MCALEENAN, KENNETH T. CUCCINELLI, AND UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES, Defendants. 14 15 16 17 DECLARATION OF KENNY CHU IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS' MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION 18 19 I, Kenny Chu, declare as follows: 20 1. I have personal knowledge of the matters set forth herein. 21 2. I am the Naturalization Program Supervisor for Self-Help for the Elderly 22 (“Self-Help”), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California. 23 Self-Help’s Mission 24 3. Originally founded to serve the elderly in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Self- 25 Help’s mission is to provide assistance and support for seniors throughout the San Francisco 26 area (San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda counties), including integrating 27 28 -1DECLARATION OF KENNY CHU IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION, CASE NO 3:19-CV-07151-MMC 1 them into the civic and political community. Over 90 percent of our clients are low-income 2 and from minority communities. We are dedicated to improving the quality of life for older 3 adults by empowering seniors to help themselves and by providing comprehensive range of 4 multicultural and multilingual services. 5 4. As a part of this mission, Self-Help serves as the lead agency for San Francisco 6 Pathways to Citizenship (“Pathways to Citizenship”), a partnership between the City of San 7 Francisco (“the City”) and six legal and social service providers aimed at increasing the 8 number of new citizens in San Francisco by providing free, high quality citizenship services. 9 10 11 5. There are currently about 50,000 legal permanent residents (“LPRs”) in San Francisco that may be eligible to naturalize. 6. Over the last six years, Pathways to Citizenship, led by Self-Help, has been 12 responsible for over 8,000 naturalization applications, over 60 percent of which were filed 13 with fee waivers. 14 Naturalization Funding 15 7. As the lead agency for Pathways to Citizenship, Self-Help receives funding 16 from the City earmarked for naturalization services. Almost all of Self-Help’s current funding 17 for naturalization workshops (explained in more detail below) comes from the City through 18 the Pathways to Citizenship partnership. For the past few years, Self-Help has also received 19 some funding from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (“ILRC”) through the New 20 Americans Campaign (“NAC”). As of the July 2019 fiscal year, however, Self-Help’s 21 naturalization workshop program is funded entirely by the City. 22 8. Self-Help is contractually obligated to complete, through the Pathways to 23 Citizenship program, 1,400 naturalization applications every year, including at least 500 24 applications that are submitted with fee waivers. In addition, Self-Help’s contract with the 25 City requires it to hold at least five large naturalization workshops every year, which it does 26 with the support of staff from the five other Pathways to Citizenship organizations. 27 28 -2DECLARATION OF KENNY CHU IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION, CASE NO 3:19-CV-07151-MMC 1 9. If Self-Help fails to meet its contractual obligations to the City, there is very 2 little chance that the grant will be renewed. Because, as of July 2019, 100 percent of Self- 3 Help’s funding for naturalization application services will come from the City, losing the 4 City’s funding would eliminate Self-Help’s ability to provide these services at all. 5 Self-Help’s Workshop Model 6 10. Self-Help organizes a one-day naturalization workshop every other month, and 7 each workshop attracts between 100 and 200 clients. The clients are generally low-income 8 and about 40 percent are elderly. Many are retirees or grandparents who have not worked in 9 many years, if ever. Many clients depend on their adult children for support. Many do not 10 11 12 13 speak English. 11. In addition to Self-Help staff, each workshop is staffed by about 120 volunteers, including approximately 20 attorney volunteers. 12. One-day workshops proceed in a highly-organized fashion, with attendees 14 moving through volunteer-staffed stations to (1) be screened for eligibility, (2) complete a 15 checklist of required documents, (3) fill out a fee waiver application with supporting 16 materials, and (4) create a finalized application packet that is ready to be dropped in the mail. 17 13. Self-Help can only help clients with fee waivers at a workshop when they are 18 able to prove their eligibility for a fee waiver using proof that they receive a means-tested 19 benefit (“MTB”). If a low-income client cannot or does not want to use the MTB method, 20 Self-Help cannot complete that client’s application at a workshop. Our volunteers are not 21 trained to complete complex fee waivers during our workshops. Complex fee waivers require 22 extensive proof of income (such as rental receipts, utility bills, bank statements, tax returns, 23 etc.) and are better completed in a one-on-one setting, and sometimes over multiple 24 appointments. Thus, Self-Help has to refer that client to one-on-one services, which uses a 25 significant amount of Self-Help staff time and resources. 26 27 28 -3DECLARATION OF KENNY CHU IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION, CASE NO 3:19-CV-07151-MMC 1 14. Because of the simplicity and higher approval rate of MTB verification letter- 2 based fee waiver applications, only between 5 to 10 percent of Self-Help clients apply for a 3 fee waiver using another method. Although we do not keep statistical data on this point, in my 4 extensive experience almost no Self-Help client that has used a MTB verification letter has 5 been rejected. 6 15. Because of the importance of the MTB verification letter to the effective 7 working of the workshop, a City employee is usually also in attendance to print verification 8 letters for fee waivers on demand. 9 16. At the end of any given workshop, about 60 percent of attendees have a 10 complete, ready-to-mail naturalization application. With minimal follow-up, an additional 15 11 percent have a complete application. Over a six year period that ended June 30, 2019, Self- 12 Help has helped file 8,944 naturalization applications, of which almost 62 percent (or 5,537) 13 were filed with a fee waiver. Almost all of the fee waivers were based on a MTB. 14 a. Client Outreach 15 17. Outreach for Self-Help’s naturalization workshops is mostly done through the 16 City’s Human Services Agency (“HSA”). When City residents register for MTBs—for 17 example, CalFresh (food stamps), MediCal (Medicaid), or CalWORKS (cash aid for 18 families)—the City records whether those residents are green card holders. Ahead of every 19 workshop, HSA searches its records for all LPRs who receive MTBs. The City then mails an 20 announcement to each of those individuals. 21 18. The mailer informs LPRs of the workshop time and location and tells them 22 exactly what to bring to complete the naturalization application. Most importantly, because 23 the announcement is sent by the City, it includes a copy of a verification letter showing that 24 the recipient receives MTB, which for nine years was all that was necessary to complete a fee 25 waiver. 26 27 28 -4DECLARATION OF KENNY CHU IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION, CASE NO 3:19-CV-07151-MMC 1 2 3 19. In addition, Self-Help pays to place short advertisements in local foreign- language newspapers. 20. These methods of outreach are designed to reach Self-Help’s mission and core 4 client base for this service: low-income, elderly members of the larger San Francisco 5 community. 6 7 8 9 Harm to Self-Help from Changes to the Fee Waiver Process 21. naturalization application services. 10 11 The changes to the fee waiver process will be devastating for Self-Help’s a. 22. Decimation of the Workshop Model As described above, the function and purpose of the workshop is to be a one- 12 stop-shop for completing a ready-to-mail naturalization application. This means that clients 13 applying for a fee waiver using something other than a MTB verification letter cannot be 14 served at workshops. 15 23. The majority of Self-Help’s clients apply using a fee waiver, and thus would 16 not be able to be served at a workshop. This would make planning and organizing bi-monthly, 17 100+ volunteer workshops virtually futile. At best, clients could come to a workshop to 18 complete a partial application, with no fee waiver. But each of those clients would have to 19 receive extensive follow-up services as they compile documentation to complete a fee waiver 20 under the new rules. Self-Help does not have the capacity to provide these services to that 21 volume of clients. At our current staff level, Self-Help would only be able to serve 200 to 300 22 naturalization clients per fiscal year—only 20 to 30 percent of the number we serve now 23 through workshops. 24 24. Worse, some portion of the clients with otherwise completed applications 25 would never submit the application. Self-Help has decades of experience serving the low- 26 income immigrant community. It is a truism in the legal services field that the more follow- 27 28 -5DECLARATION OF KENNY CHU IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION, CASE NO 3:19-CV-07151-MMC 1 ups a process requires, the less likely it is that a client completes that process. The same is 2 certainly true of naturalization applications—particularly where cost can seem an 3 insurmountable barrier. 4 25. As it stands, Self-Help’s clients routinely are denied fee waivers when they use 5 the income-based approach. Sometimes this is because the client has not submitted enough 6 information, and sometimes it is because the client is simply not able to prove to the 7 government’s satisfaction that they have a low enough income. Many of our low-income 8 clients do not file taxes because they do not meet an income level that requires them to do so. 9 These LPRs do not have a convenient way to prove their income level. Instead, they have to 10 gather a collection of paperwork such as rental receipts, utility bills, bank statements, and 11 other financial records. LPRs without the above paperwork—such as the transient, very 12 elderly, or those with no or very irregular income—have a hard time gathering these 13 materials. Whatever the case, it is very difficult to encourage clients with these barriers to 14 continue to attempt to apply for citizenship. And in cases where there is simply no other 15 information or documentation to muster, it is especially hard to convince clients that it is 16 worthwhile to go forward. 17 26. For this reason, Self-Help does not help clients with partial fee waivers, which 18 have always required applicants to provide documentation to prove their incomes. The 19 process is too complicated and takes too much staff time. 20 27. Self-Help has rarely, if ever, helped a client apply for a fee waiver using tax 21 records. There are many reasons for this—including that many of Self-Help’s elderly clients 22 are not or have never been employed in the U.S.—but the primary reason is that many of Self- 23 Help’s clients speak little to no English, making complex administrative tasks difficult. Self- 24 Help’s clients are often not able to complete any significant online work, and require 25 translation assistance when interacting with entities like banks and government agencies. 26 27 28 -6DECLARATION OF KENNY CHU IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION, CASE NO 3:19-CV-07151-MMC 1 28. On occasion, however, Self-Help has helped clients with partial fee waivers 2 that require providing proof of income. We do so in our office on a one-on-one basis, and 3 depending on the difficulties in obtaining all the required documents, it takes up to two 4 additional appointments to complete a fee waiver application with proof of income. 5 29. The changes to the fee waiver process will now also require obtaining tax 6 transcripts. In order to request a tax transcript online, a client needs (1) information from past 7 tax records, (2) an email address, (3) a personal account number for a credit card, mortgage, 8 home equity loan, home equity line of credit, or car loan, and (4) a mobile phone with the 9 taxpayer’s name on the account. If these requirements are not met, clients must apply by mail. 10 Gathering the documentation for a tax transcript request would be quite difficult, if not 11 impossible, for Self-Help’s clients. For example, one-third of the clients Self-Help assisted 12 from June to December 2018 did not have an email address at all, and many who did appear 13 to have listed a child’s email address. Most of Self-Help’s clients are renters who do not own 14 a home. Many do not have credit lines or credit cards. And, although most do have cell 15 phones, many receive them through a free City program that provides limited phone services 16 for the elderly. These individuals do not receive phone bill or have their own plan. These 17 factors prevent them from using the IRS’s online tax transcript tool. 18 30. The burden of completing the existing tax transcript request process is simply 19 too high for these clients, and Self-Help does not have the resources to provide intensive 20 hands-on assistance in this way. Moreover, these requirements are not such that they can be 21 met in a one-day workshop where participants quickly move through volunteer-staffed 22 stations. 23 31. Above and beyond these reasons, the proposed changes will render Self-Help’s 24 workshop model infeasible because Self-Help is hugely reliant on the City’s outreach, through 25 HSA, to potential clients. The City’s outreach is based on a list of residents who receive 26 MTBs—something that is irrelevant under the new process. More critically, the City’s 27 28 -7DECLARATION OF KENNY CHU IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION, CASE NO 3:19-CV-07151-MMC 1 outreach is the main way Self-Help finds workshop attendees. No City outreach means far 2 less awareness of workshops, which leads to much lower attendance. If the change to the fee 3 waiver process goes into effect, Self-Help would have to spend significantly more money on 4 outreach and advertising in an attempt to fill the gap—something it does not currently have 5 the budget to do. 6 32. Moreover, for reasons explained above, the partnership with the City will be 7 rendered moot, because a key resource offered by the City (verification letters) will no longer 8 be relevant. 9 33. San Francisco is a city of immigrants. It would be a great loss for the 10 community to no longer have free naturalization workshops sponsored by the City. Over the 11 last six years, we have hosted over 40 workshops in locations spread throughout San 12 Francisco. Some of our volunteers have been volunteering since 2013. It is important to 13 continue to host these workshops that provide a space that all immigrants feel welcomed. 14 b. Immediate Diversion of Resources 15 34. Self-Help will immediately have to expend significant time, resources, and 16 money on educating the community, volunteers, and the local immigration legal services 17 community on the change. 18 35. Self-Help will have to immediately re-train its pool of approximately 2,000 19 volunteers, all of whom are only trained to provide assistance with fee waivers based on MTB 20 verification letters. 21 36. Self-Help will have to immediately re-train its attorneys and naturalization 22 specialists to assist clients in applying for fee waivers under the new rules, including creating 23 (and re-creating) materials to assist staff in providing this service. For example, Self-Help 24 staff do not currently assist clients with things like obtaining IRS records, bank records, credit 25 records, email addresses, or cell phone plans. Moreover, Self-Help staff do not currently 26 provide or facilitate translation services for these activities. In addition, given that various 27 28 -8DECLARATION OF KENNY CHU IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION, CASE NO 3:19-CV-07151-MMC 1 records are available at certain times (i.e. after tax filings) and take time to receive, Self-Help 2 will have to develop, and train our staff on, completely revised timelines for fee waiver 3 applications. 4 37. Self-Help staff will also have to conduct workshops to educate our client base 5 on the new requirements for the fee waiver—which, because of the clients’ inability to pay, 6 amounts to new requirements for applying to naturalize. To the extent community education 7 materials exist on this subject, they will have to be edited and updated. 8 9 10 11 38. And finally, Self-Help will have to devote significant, additional staff time and resources to assisting the clients it can serve with a more complex fee waiver application. 39. We will incur these costs as soon as the new form goes into effect. If the rule were later enjoined, we would not be able to recoup those costs. 12 c. Loss of Funding 13 40. The shuttering of Self-Help’s workshops jeopardizes, and likely eliminates, 14 Self-Help’s current funding streams. As noted above, both NAC and City funding (which for 15 fiscal year 2019-2020 is $525,000) are tied to quantitative application-completion 16 requirements. These numbers are impossible for Self-Help staff to meet without the support of 17 the 150+ volunteers and the use of large-scale events. Even if Self-Help were to find a way to 18 reassign or increase staffing, it could never match the capacity of so many volunteers. As 19 mentioned above, we would expect to serve between 70 to 80 percent fewer clients in a given 20 year—a devastating drop in outcomes, and thus in funding opportunities, for a non-profit 21 organization like ours. 22 41. Furthermore, shuttering Self-Help’s workshops dramatically reduces the 23 number of clients Self-Help can provide with naturalization application services at all. 24 Workshops are by far the biggest driver of completed applications: of the 8,000 applications 25 Pathways to Citizenship, led by Self-Help, has submitted, 75 percent are completed through 26 workshops. A reduction in clients served is not only a harm to the community, which depends 27 28 -9DECLARATION OF KENNY CHU IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION, CASE NO 3:19-CV-07151-MMC 1 on the free naturalization services that Self-Help provides in its own right and as the Pathways 2 to Citizenship lead agency. It is also a significant harm to Self-Help’s mission, which is to 3 improve the quality of life for low-income immigrant and minority communities by 4 promoting their independence, dignity, and self-worth. 5 d. Changes to the Fee Waiver Process Will Frustrate Self-Help’s Mission 6 42. As a result of the changes to the I-912 fee waiver form, Self-Help likely will 7 no longer be able to provide naturalization assistance through the workshop model, which 8 impacts our mission of improving the quality of life for older adults from low-income 9 immigrant and minority communities. Without outreach by the City of San Francisco, which 10 Self-Help is not in a position to replace, we anticipate a deep drop in participation at our 11 workshops. Failure to meet our contractual obligations would result in the loss of our sole 12 source of funding for our citizenship work, our grant from the City of San Francisco. Self- 13 Help would likely have significantly down-size its citizenship program and re-allocate greater 14 resources to help fewer individuals with the more complex fee waiver application process, 15 and may even be forced to terminate the program entirely. This would be a huge loss for San 16 Francisco and undermine Self-Help’s mission of supporting older adults by promoting their 17 independence, well-being, and dignity. 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 - 10 DECLARATION OF KENNY CHU IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION, CASE NO 3:19-CV-07151-MMC M-JONLJI declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my knowledge. Executed on November 6, 2019. x" . . . Kenny Chu, ga-turallzatlon Program Superv1sor Self?Help for the Elderly -11.. DECLARATION OF KENNY CHU IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS MOTION FOR PRELMINARY INJUNCTION, CASE NO 3: