VOCES

MARIA: It's been like 19 years living here and now, it's all for nothing?

(theme music plays).

SAGET: Good morning Sir, could you please state your name for the record?

HAMILTON: Gene Hamilton.

MacLean: Please state your name.

KOVARIK: My name is Kathy Nuebel Kovarik.

CISSNA: Lee Francis Cissna.

MacLean: Have you ever been deposed before?

KOVARIK: No.

MacLean: How did you get involved in that immigration working group in the transition team?

KOVARIK: Uh, I have a lot of knowledge on immigration.

I've worked on Capitol Hill.

I knew a lot of the people that were involved.

MacLean: Did you have a particular motivation that led you to get more involved in the immigration working group of the transition team?

KOVARIK: Um, only that I have a passion for immigration law and the rule of law and I wanted to make sure that the President-Elect was prepared to the extent possible on this issue.

MacLean: Were there particular immigration priorities that you had identified for the President in the new administration?

KOVARIK: Everything was a priority.

DRIVER: Ahora si lo vas hacer cantar.

DAUGHTER: This is my dads song.

JUAN: Ay ay ay, Chiquita!

Ooh, mamita!

ELSY: Para nosotros, venir aca era como venir a pasear JUAN: Ojos que no eres feliz.

ELSY: Nosotros venimos aca con visa.

JUAN: No tiene sentido seguir asi JUAN: Yo andaba con mi esposa y Maria Jose, tenia ano y medio.

Llegamos a Georgia.

Tenemos familia.

En Houston temenos bastante familia tambien.

Adios amor, me voy de ti.

Esta vez para siempre.

Adios amor, me voy de ti.

JUAN: Asi que cuando llegamos aqui, no paramos de visitor y visitor.

Que quedense otro dia!

Emocionados nosotros.

Como me duele perderte.

Me resignare a olvidarte.

Porque me fallaste.

ELSY: La idea no era quedarnos.

Era venir a pasear y, casa.

REPORTER: Damage reports are just starting to come in after a massive earthquake.

It measured 7.6 on the Richter scale.

ELSY: Pero, luego paso el desastre en El Salvador.

McGOVERN: I have often thought that the people of El Salvador are constantly being tested.

The United States played a very major role in El Salvador during the 1980s, a role quite frankly, that I questioned whether it was the right role for us to play but we owe this country a great deal and I think the very least we need to do is come forward and help them during this very difficult time.

ELSY: Oimos acerca del TPS Y la oportunidad de quedar trabajando legamente en Estados Unidos.

MacLean: What do you understand about the intent of the TPS statute?

KOVARIK: The temporary protected statute was created by Congress in order to give temporary relief to individuals in the United States.

MacLean: When you read that, I noticed that you emphasize temporary.

Was there... Is that correct?

KOVARIK: Temporary?

It does say temporary?

Yes, I emphasized it.

MacLean: And is there a reason that you emphasize temporary?

KOVARIK: Because it's not a long-term legal status, it's a temporary status.

MacLean: I want to understand more clearly the process that the agency goes through and making various TPS determinations that have occurred.

Can you start by just giving you a high-level overview of the process?

KOVARIK: Where would you like me to start?

MacLean: Um, at the beginning, KOVARIK: Uh, as the statute lays out, at least 60 days before the end of the initial period of designation, the Secretary has to make a decision.

So my office kickstarts, an interagency review process in advance of that 60 days.

ANDERSON: The initial steps would be to reach out to Department of State to request country conditions.

Also to the research unit within USCIS that also prepared a country conditions report.

Looking at conditions in the country is very important part of both the TPS review process and initial designations.

PRELOGAR: We use the information provided to then create a decision memo.

RAMOS: Will the secretary sign this memo?

CISSNA: Yeah, the Secretary would circle whatever option they want, and then sign their name next to it.

REPORTER: El Salvador is one of the poorest countries in the world.

The civil war of the 1980s left a legacy of weak governance and economies left in brutal violence.

Central American country has one of the world's highest murder rates in the world for young people under the age of 19.

ANDERSON: I believe that a review of currently existing conditions in the country designated for TPS is an important part of considering whether the designation should be extended or terminated.

SAGET: Alright, and currently existing conditions would not necessarily have existed at the time of the initial designation.

Correct?

US LAWYER: Objection, you can answer... ANDERSON: Yes, current conditions would not have necessarily existed at the time of the initial designation.

ELSY: Decian que el pais aun no estaba preparado para nosotros.

Nacio Joanna.

Luego Juancito.

Veiamos que el TPS seguia.

CHILD: Hi ELSY: Empezamos a ver ya en establecernos mas en este pais.

(overlapping chatter) JOANNA: I remember the day my brother and I went to school as a normal routine.

And then I received a phone call from my sister.

I could hear the shakiness in her voice.

She could barely get her words out.

MARIA: I was like, Oh my God.

Trump said he wants all of us out.

BERMAN: We're just learning that moments ago the Department of Homeland Security said it will end the temporary protected status for people who came to the United States from El Salvador... REPORTER: Administration officials contend El Salvador has recovered from the 2001 earthquakes and argue it's time for those citizens to return home.

The choice facing most of them is really whether they go into the shadows and become unauthorized immigrants or whether they go back to El Salvador.

JOANNA: I would think that my parents my sister would possibly be deported and like because I am a US citizen I would be here alone with my brother.

Come on, Juan!

(overlapping chatter) JUANCITO: I have two choices... To stay here or go with my parents in El Salvador and that's a tough choice.

Trying not to cry.

Hold on.

My parents raised me once I was born and I don't want it to end because-because I love them.

JUAN: Esta es la calle 16 NW.

Todo derecho aca, todo recto Podemos llegar directo a la casa blanca.

Somos vecinos.

Que nos den la oportuidad.

De cumplir nuestros suenos y objetivos.

y nuestro sueno es estar aqui en este pais y luchar con nuestra familia.

REPORTER: The president tonight apparently uncorking another astonishing statement, complaining to lawmakers in the Oval Office about protections for immigrants.

Why do we want these people from quote, "...all these [deleted] countries here?"

before suggesting the US should have more people from places like Norway, DURBAN: We have a group that have temporary protected status in the United States because they were the victims of crises and disasters and political upheaval.

The largest groups El Salvador, and the second is Honduran.

And the third is Haitian.

And when I mentioned that fact to him, he said, "Haitians do we need more Haitians?"

Calling the nations they come from [deleted]-holes.

(applause) TAYLOR: When Donald Trump came in, we had any number of issues, life or death, homeland security issues that needed to be addressed.

If you think of it as an apple pie, and let's say it's in eight slices, each of those slices is an equally important mission, whether it's National Emergency Response, whether it's fighting terrorist plots, whether it's intelligence, whether it's what the Secret Service does, and protection to the President and foreign dignitaries, and on and on down the list defending the nation against cyber attacks.

And then border security and immigration is one slice of the pie.

When Donald Trump looked at DHS, the entire pie was immigration.

TRUMP: My administration has answered the pleas of the American people for immigration enforcement and border security.

(applause) TAYLOR: Donald Trump one time in an Oval Office meeting told us that he was jealous of Kim Jong Un's border.

He said, "Look at Kim Jong Un's border and how badass it is.

That's the type of border we need."

And it wasn't a joke.

And he told us he wanted us to dig a moat in front of the border wall and put alligators and snakes in it.

It wasn't a bar joke that he was telling.

He wanted a freakin moat in front of the border wall with alligators and snakes that would eat migrants alive if they tried to get into the United States.

TRUMP: We're going to defend our workers, protect our jobs, and finally put America first.

(applause) (overlapping chatter) ELSY: Joey, are you ready?

JOANNA: My family have been living like regular US citizens.

That was what I used to think.

But they will always bring up the T-P-S...

I was like T-P what?

(sax solo) (applause and cheering) CHORUS: Ain't no sunshine when she's gone.

And she's always gone too long Anytime she goes away.

MARIA: I never really understood why we had to go get our fingerprints and take a picture and get this card.

ELSY: Ms. Lamola, thank you for everything.

JUAN: Yes, thank you.

TEACHER: Talented young vocalist, he's very talented.

I'm hoping I keep him for the next four years.

ELSY: Yes, okay, yes.

MARIA: The first time was when we were renewing our TPS.

And it was my junior year.

And I remember that day I was really really mad like, I didn't want to wake up early, like why do I have to go?

And like my siblings didn't have to go?

And so it was just me and my parents.

And then they told me about... Like, "Oh, this is TPS, this is your status."

(overlapping chatter) SPEAKER: Alguien que me diga, cuantos paises tienen TPS?

CROWD: 13!

SPEAKER: 13 paises.

Nicaragua!

Hope!

El Salvador!

Hope!

MacLean: There are hundreds of thousands of TPS holders who have been living in the United States for decades, have built families, have been paying a fee every 18 months to renew their status, have had to prove with substantial documentation that they don't have, you know, a single felony conviction and are really just trying to live their lives here after you know, different types of humanitarian disasters in their own countries.

PARTICIPANT: Abajo el odio!

Arriba la familia!

CROWD: Abajo el odio!

Arriba la familia!

SPEAKER: Abajo el odio!

Arriba la familia!

ALVARADO: As soon as we knew that Trump was gonna come into power, we began a campaign organizing TPS holders across the country.

It's actually people taking their own destiny in their own hands and saying, We're gonna fight back...

In the streets, you know, in the court of public opinion, we need to have a voice in Washington DC, but we also said we have to fight in the court system.

(overlapping chatter) ELSY: Ellos dijeron que porque no nos involucrabamos nosotros?

Al principio, yo no queria, pues, o sea, meterse con el gobierno es algo muy grande.

SPEAKER: When we fight.

CROWD: We win!

SPEAKER: When we fight.

CROWD: We win!

SPEAKER: When we fight.

CROWD: We win!

SPEAKER: Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

ELSY: Yo estoy en el litigio y venimos para sequir apoyando el Proyecto del TPS.

Estaba nerviosa.

Mi familia no sabia lo que estaba haciendo.

Mi hermana lo supo nada mas.

Y ella tenia un poco de miedo.

Porque,me decia, tu nombre y la de tu familia va estar en eso y que va pasar contigo?

Lo unico que dije es... Dios, tu sabes donde quieres que yo este.

Y si tu elegiste a mi para hacer esto, pues, vamos a salir adelante.

SPEAKER When I say "TPS," you say "Now."

TPS.

CROWD: Now!

SPEAKER: TPS.

CROWD: Now!

SPEAKER: TPS.

CROWD: Now!

SPEAKER: What to we want?

MacLean: The litigation was filed with nine TPS holders and five children of TPS holders who were born in the United States and are US citizens as the plaintiffs.

And they are from Haiti, Nicaragua, Sudan, and El Salvador.

We think we've got a pretty strong case that the decisions violated past practice, that there are some real legal concerns about what happened.

Today, we are here in force, with TPS holders and their families to ask a court to reject the government's position.

They intentionally and illegally relied on an exceedingly narrow interpretation of the TPS statute.

COURT OFFICER: Calling case C-181554, Ramos versus Nielsen.

Counsel please come to the podium and state your name for the record.

ARULANANTHAM: Good morning your Honor, Ahilan Arulanantham for the plaintiffs.

JUDGE CHEN: Alright.

Good morning.

ARULANANTHAM: The goal of the lawsuit is to protect TPS holders and their American children.

So one argument that we've made is that the administration's decisions here are motivated by racism.

JUDGE CHEN: What's your view about the comments that-that they're cited by the plaintiff, President's comments about [deleted] countries and comparing TPS countries to like Norway as an example, that it was within a short time, I think, within one week?

Before, I think the first decision was made.

MARTIN: We have a congressionally designated decision maker who was a cabinet secretary who makes these decisions.

For that reason, President's comments are really opposition's that are irrelevant to decision-making process here.

NIELSEN: We didn't dispute the country conditions are difficult in El Salvador.

But unfortunately, the law requires me, if I cannot say that the conditions emanating from the earthquake still exist, regardless of other systemic conditions, I must terminate TPS.

ARULANANTHAM: We allege that there is an unexplained departure from the prior practice.

So what was she looking at when she said that?

Was she looking at a memo?

And we're entitled to find out if there is such a memo.

MacLean: Literally days before we had to file our motion, the district judge agreed that given that this case was in part about what we alleged the racist motivations of this administration and terminating TPS, the government had an obligation to give us the draft documents and the internal communications about how they made these decisions.

SAGET: Will the reporter please swear in the witness?

REPORTER: Raise your right hand, please.

MacLean: We were able to also depose a number of high-ranking government officials... REPORTER: Do you swear the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

RESPONDENT: I do.

MacLean: And there was another lawsuit Saget versus Trump, they were able to also depose other people who were extraordinarily influential in the decision to terminate TPS.

RESPONDENT: I do.

ARULANANTHAM: When we made the decision to work on this lawsuit, we didn't know any of the details about how these decisions were made.

There was rumors that the administration had plans to end TPS for all the countries.

And that was, that was all we knew.

Then, this whole story came to light.

MacLean: What is your current position at USCIS, Ms. Nuebel-Kovarik?

KOVARIK: I am Chief of the Office of Policy and Strategy.

MacLean: When did you begin that position?

KOVARIK: I was appointed to that position on April 2 of 2017.

I oversee the process and the practice of writing decision memos for our director.

I'm aware of the legal considerations but not an expert.

My subject matter experts are very thorough.

They've written memos not only for me but previous administrations, Democrat and Republican.

PRELOGAR: My division essentially oversees the policy-making process for a large portion of the humanitarian protection benefits that USCIS administers.

Refugee asylum, Temporary Protected Status, among others.

SAGET: Could you give me a sense of how many decisions you've been involved in?

Since coming to Washington in 2014?

US LAWYER: Objection, Vague, you can answer.

ANDERSON: I would estimate probably around 15.

KOVARIK: They've been doing this for a long time.

And I defer to them, I defer to them on the day I came into this position because they know this process better than anybody else.

SHANNON: It is the responsibility of the professional services, both our Foreign Service and our civil service, to respond to the elected leaders that are chosen by the American people.

Most national oaths are to kings or to queens, to fatherland, to soil, to blood.

The United States is really the only country that I'm aware of, where we take an oath of office in which we swear an oath to the Constitution and to the political values that underpin our Constitution, TRUMP: Build that wall, build that wall, build that wall!

MILLER: It is a fact that you have Americans dying every single day as a result of immigration policies.

That's what I... SHANNON: As Trump emerged as the candidate, it became increasingly apparent that he was attracting a whole brand of people on the fringes of the Republican Party, who had never been able to move past the offices of a few senators and members of the house.

SESSIONS: What he's talking about when he says red flags, he's talking about threats, criminals, terrorists, SHANNON: They've never worked within a cabinet agency before.

They only have the barest understanding of how decisions are made and how they're implemented.

GRAHAM: Are there radical Imams out there in the country that sympathize with ISIL and al Qaeda... CRUZ: Syrian refugees that have been admitted to the United States, and more than 14,000 of them were Muslim.

Fewer than 100... TAYLOR: Like several months in, it becomes clear it's like, oh, wait, these people work together.

Like you start to understand that there's this kind of network of immigration hardliners.

Stephen Miller is an obvious one who really wanted to see TPS end.

SAGET: Did you work with Stephen Miller while on the transition team?

HAMILTON: Stephen worked on the transition entity.

At the same time I did.

SAGET: Did you discuss formulation of immigration policy with him?

HAMILTON: I did.

NEALON: During my time at DHS, my understanding of the way the White House's druthers on immigration policy were delivered to the Department of Homeland Security was from Stephen Miller to a gentleman named Gene Hamilton, who was the secretary's and then the acting secretary's senior counselor on immigration matters.

And then that information we go up the chain of command rather than down the chain of command as it usually does in-in the bureaucracy.

REPORTER: A federal judge tonight blocking the Trump administration from ending the TPS program.

REPORTER: In his ruling Judge Edward Chan said President Trump harbors an animus against non-white, non-European aliens.

The White House says the decision usurps... MARIA: I really remember it was my mom coming in the room all happy.

I'm like oh my gosh.

This is so, this big.

Like and it gives me a gave me more hope for the future.

REPORTER: Tonight's ruling is not final but will apply as a lawsuit challenging the administration move proceeds... ELSY: Ay dios mio, Jesus... Porque me pusieron a mi en esto?

CROWD: Trump, escucha!

Estamos en la lucha!

Trump, escucha!

Estamos en la lucha!

Abajo el odio!

Arriba las familias!

ELSY: Yo andaba con mi sombria, mi bandera y mi papel.

Y en todo eso, el papel ya estaba mojado.

Ya unas letras no se veian.

Y tenia miedo de que me iba confudir yo misma de lo que estaba leyendo.

ORGANIZER: Esto es solo un a pequena muestra del principio de una gran pelea... Una pelea que vamos a ganar.

Con ustedes, Elsy Ayala.

(chanting in Spanish) ELSY: La verdad, dije lo que en el momento se me vino.

Muy Buenos dias.

Mis hijos y yo, permanecemos en la demanda que se impuso el pasado marzo en San Francisco.

Y con la noticia reciente del juez Chen, Nos da un voto de esperanza para seguir en la lucha.

Para que no nos separen de nuestros hijos.

Para que nuestros hijos no tengan que sufrir, En irse a un lugar que no conocen, Y adelante y gracias por star aqui.

(cheering) CROWD: Si se puede!

Si se puede!

Si se puede!

SPEAKER: What do we want?

CROWD: Residency!

SPEAKER: When do we want it?

CROWD: Now!

SPEAKER: When, when, when?

CROWD: Now, now, now!

PARTICIPANT: Right here is where we have right now we're working on TPS or litigation, right?

The case.

Why this is important is because the Supreme Court or judiciary the court cannot grant permanent residency.

It can give us more time, but it does not grant permanent residency or permanent solution.

However, it's helpful because we know Congress takes a long time, right, to pass something.

But only Congress can actually have a provide a permanent solution to provide permanent residency.

McGOVERN: In the house, we've actually passed legislation to help provide them a pathway to citizenship doesn't look like that in the Senate.

But even if you did, and if we passed it, I mean, there's not a lot of hope that the current occupant of the Oval Office would sign it.

And I think by turning them away, we're repeating past history, history that we should not be proud of.

I looked back in the 1980s, the way we treated Salvadorans it's a stain on our human rights record.

REPORTER: The people of Salvador are caught in a web of terror trapped between the military forces of the government and the guerrilla forces of the FMLN.

No one is safe in this civil war.

ELSY: Estaba muy pequena.

Yo puedo recordar era el reclutamiento del ejercito.

LUIS: They were taking young kids to the army and into the guerillas.

We saw friends that went to school with me that they join the army and three months later they come in-in body bags, like plastic bag.

HECTOR: We have a cousin also that got killed.

Like a grenade exploded on him and his friend.

He was young like my age, 16-17 years old.

I felt scared.

SHANNON: This was one of the final battles of the Cold War.

And this was a period of time in which Ronald Reagan had drawn a line in Central America and made clear that Soviet and Cuban adventurism would not be successful.

REPORTER: Over the last 11 years, the United States has sent more than $4 billion in aid to El Salvador's military forces and government.

INZUNZA: We were supporting the wrong people.

We were creating a lot of havoc and these poor people become victims.

(gunshots) FLORES: Nos estaban matando.

Esa guerra fue terrible.

Y me empiezo.

LUIS: For us, we didn't have nothing, we couldn't get a visa we have to come to the border.

So we made it here after a month, made it here to the border, you know, suffering, loss on weight.

But we made it to Texas.

Not everybody made it.

INZUNZA: Of all the countries that... the one I feel the most guilty about was El Salvador.

You know, it was "ready-fire-aim."

You know, we already knew that we were going to deny him when we went to the interview, just matter of taking the time to listen to him and say, "Oh," nod our head, say, "Thank you very much.

Yeah, okay."

REAGAN: For several years now, under two administrations, the United States has been increasing its defense of freedom in the Caribbean Basin.

And I can tell you tonight, democracy is beginning to take root in El Salvador.

MacLean: This was a president who could have provided some humanitarian protection for Salvadorans who were fleeing horrific violence and refused to do so.

McGOVERN: Essentially, the Reagan administration's view was that, you know, El Salvador was perfectly safe.

Because if they admitted that it wasn't, it would be an admission that our foreign policy wasn't working.

I had just started working for Congressman Joe Moakley and a group of activists came to see him and asked him to help protect Salvadoran refugees who are in the United States.

They were concerned that because there was a war going on in El Salvador that they would be deported back to perhaps death.

He said, "Well, why don't you get out of check it out?"

And so I went, and I spent a couple of weeks traveling around the country.

It was as bad as everybody said it was.

I genuinely feared that anybody who was forcibly sent back to El Salvador could have a target on their back.

So my recommendation to Congressman Moakley was, do everything you can to protect these people.

And he drafted a bill, which was the basis for Temporary Protected Status.

MOAKLEY: I'm very delighted that the conference saw fit to maintain my provisional offer temporary protection to the refugees from Salvador.

MacLean: This was a law that was created to limit presidential influence in these kinds of humanitarian immigration decisions.

And that's obviously not what we're seeing with this administration.

SUDAN: So in the next email that you send on Tuesday, August 29, 2017.

You say that, "Looking more carefully at the Sudan paper attached, it seems a bit confused."

And then you quote some language.

"The review of conditions in Sudan indicates that it remains unsafe for individuals to return to Sudan and that the statutory requirements to designate a country for TPS under Immigration and Nationality Act, Section 24B1A.

Ongoing armed conflict, and under 244B1C extraordinary temporary conditions continue to be met.

Then you write, and then on page five, "Despite all the foregoing, the recommendation is to terminate TPS for Sudan, exclamation point."

You add at the end, "The memo reads like one person who strongly supports extending TPS for Sudan wrote everything up to the recommendation section.

And then someone who opposes extension snuck up behind the first guy clubbed him over the head, push a senseless body out of the way, and finish the memo.

Am I missing something?"

CISSNA: Before I answer I commend counsel in reading that with a straight face.

But um, I would say I have I had no idea why that happened.

I was just performing my duty as an Office of Policy staffer and basically expressing concern the memo was just not ready for primetime.

MacLean: Do you know who wrote the original memo?

KOVARIK: It was Brandon and Katherine?

Jointly probably wrote it.

MacLean: And do you know who wrote the revised memo?

KOVARIK: The Office of Policy and Strategy?

Either myself or my subject matter experts.

MacLean: Do you remember if it was you or if it was a subject matter expert?

KOVARIK: I don't recall.

MacLean: The next message is from Mr. Hamilton on August 29 at 10:10 pm.

SAGET: Did you have any role in USCIS's evaluation of country conditions?

HAMILTON: I, did I have any role?

What do you mean by that?

KOVARIK: There were some, some change that needed to be made and it had to be repackaged.

MacLean: The decision had already been made.

So then the career person is now tasked with basically crossing out everything that's inconsistent so that it's cleaned up for the DHS Secretary to sign.

And then they have their new memo and TPS for Sudan is terminated.

PARTYGOER: Debajo del 40!

Debajo del 40!

(overlapping chatter) ELSY: No!

(applause) HECTOR: Tambien quiero felicitar a mi hermana mas pequenita quien cumple 40 anos ahora.

Me hace sentir como de 80 ya, porque soy el mayor.

(overlapping chatter) ELSY: Mi padre emigro primero.

Poco a poco trajo a todos mis hermanos varones.

Quedamos tres con mi madre en El Salvador.

LUIS: Yo no conocia a Yolanda hasta cuando vino de El Salvador.

Vino en el 2000.

ELSY: No, cuando tu fuiste la primera vez a El Salvador.

LUIS: O si, es cierto tenes razon.

ELSY: A Hector no lo conocia... HECTOR: When I left Elsy was four years old.

I barely remember what she, she look like.

All the time you know that I couldn't be with them while they were growing up.

My first trip to Salvador was 11 years after coming here, that was in 1994.

She was 15 years old.

So there was this distance, you know?

And we still kind of feel it.

I mean, even with my mom I feel it.

Parece que la mama tambien quiere decir algo, darle un abrazo MOM: Felicidades a mi hija!

HECTOR: Elsy going back to El Salvador in leaving her kids here will be terrible.

I mean, I went through that experience, you know, with-with them and this was traumatizing, I think.

REPORTER: So what values and ideas should guide the US immigration system?

Well here in the studio to discuss that we have Robert Law.

He's the Government Relations Director with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, also known as FAIR.

LAW: In our current system, if you bring in your spouse, and then your spouse sponsors, her brother, who then can bring in his wife who brings in her father, you're so far removed from the original immigrant that came here that it's basically one person has the the effect of transporting their entire family over time to the United States.

And that's not exactly, you know, maintaining a core family that's just relocating people to the US.

At some point, you just have to cut off that chain and the rest of the family has to sort of earn their own way there through the merit-based system.

SAGET: When you started at USCIS, was there any onboarding training that you received?

US LAWYER: Object to the form.

LAW: No.

SAGET: You laughed when you said that.

LAW: I kind of felt like I got thrown into the deep end right away.

Got sworn in, and got started.

SAGET: So this is says from Robert Law on Sunday, October 22, 2017, at 6:28 pm to Kathy Kovarik.

And the subject is, "Re: Haiti draft TPS Memo."

"The draft is overwhelming weighted for extension, which I do not think is the conclusion we are looking for period.

I can track change edits tonight, or we can discuss in the morning, whatever your preferred timing is, period."

Did I read that correctly, Mr. Law?

LAW: You read that correctly, yes.

REPORTER: The Trump administration is ending the Temporary Protected Status program for tens of thousands of Haitians.

REPORTER: Homeland Security has made a statement saying that since the 2010 earthquake, the number of displaced people in Hati... SAGET: What was your meaning for posing your question or you ended up with a department of dunces?

US LAWYER: Objection, you can answer.

ANDERSON: I think I was expressing frustration at the decision to terminate Haiti's TPS and the conclusions that had been drawn in this announcement.

SAGET: Would you characterize you know how this process played out on this particular memo as being you know consistent with the process in general?

US LAWYER: Object to the form, you can answer.

PRELOGAR: No.

ELSY: Mira los vestidos que nos ponia mi mama.

JUAN: Bien bonitos!

ELSY: Mira el pelo aqui!

JUAN: Cuanto anos tenias aqui 12 anos?

ELSY: Aproximadamente, No recuerdo Pero aqui si te conocia.

JUAN: En una occasion, iba con mi grupo de amigos a jugar basketball.

De repente veo que venia, bueno, Elsy.

Y la vi bueno, que me llamo la atencion Yo tenia 15 anos.

[Ella] tenia 13.

Como Juancito, estabamos pequenos.

Pues, paso el Tiempo Y luego, hubo una fiesta y de repente la veo.

Bailamos toda la noche.

Y ahi, platicamos desde entonces.

Eso fue en el 92.

REPORTER: 1992 may finally have brought peace to the war-scarred nation of El Salvador.

Just minutes after the new year began... ELSY: Se hizo el acuerdo de paz.

Podiamos andar libremente por el canton.

Podiamos andar por la noche donde el vecino.

Jugar a las escondidas con todos.

Jugar la pelota con los amigos.

Luego,se empezaban a ver personas que empezaban a robar.

Y ya se hablaba un poco de las pandillas.

Se empazaba ver gente tatuada.

Poco a poco se fue escuchando mas criminalidades en el ambiente.

Esto estoy hablando del 97, que yo estaba haciendo high school.

Luego ya no podiamos hacer lo mismo que haciamos REPORTER: Most of the violence has been driven by young Salvadorans who fled civil wars and natural disasters.

Then grew up and joined gangs in the U.S., and were deported back here.

McGOVERN: When the war ended in El Salvador, we walked away from the country.

Our economic and development aid got slashed dramatically.

Um, we, we helped create a gang problem in El Salvador.

I mean, MS13 was not born in El Salvador.

It was born in Los Angeles, right?

I mean, so we deported gang members and helped create that problem.

But we never helped the country rebuild.

NEALON: In the fall of 2017, the DHS bureaucracy began to gear up for a number of TPS decisions that needed to be made for the Central American countries.

JOHNSON: Please be seated.

Our first witness was the honorable Elaine Duke, Elaine Duke is the Acting Secretary.

NEALON: And so as those dates approached, the secretary, who at the time was the acting secretary, Elaine Duke, said, "Well, you know, you have a unique perspective on this compared to the other people in the building.

So I'd like to hear from you.

Why don't you tell me what you think?"

So I did that.

MacLean: What is this document?

KOVARIK: Ambassador Nealon took it upon himself to write a memo from himself to the Acting Secretary.

NEALON: I was a little bit the odd man out because I was not someone who had come from the campaign.

I was not someone who had come from the party.

I was not someone who had come from the hill.

I had been an ambassador in Central America.

I knew the country conditions.

KOVARIK: Secretary Nealon's poorly written memo explains in his words, why TPS should be designated for certain countries two of which are part of this litigation.

NEALON: I'm not a fan of TPS.

I think it very quickly, can become an entitlement that ties the government's hands.

And that's almost always bad policy.

What I argued in my brief memo to Acting Secretary Duke was that whatever had happened in the past, whether it was good policy or bad to have renewed TPS at every turn, by repatriating huge numbers of people back to those countries, we are going to exacerbate the very problems that we're trying to help them resolve.

Bad policy.

KOVARIK: I think there may be points in here that are not relevant.

MacLean: What are the points that are not relevant in here?

KOVARIK: "Data shows that TPS recipients have a very high workforce participation rate, much higher than the national average."

Is one example.

"TPS recipients have jobs, have gotten married, have many thousands of American citizen children.

Work legally in great numbers, pay taxes, own homes, own businesses, and live the American dream minus a path to citizenship."

I'll stop there.

Those are examples.

SHANNON: Normally, when it comes time to review extension of temporary protective status, the Department of Homeland Security requests of the Department of State an evaluation.

McGOVERN: The people at our embassy in El Salvador were pleading with the administration to extend TPS.

And they were making the case that not only would deporting all these people be disruptive and destabilizing, but it's very dangerous in El Salvador still.

SHANNON: This is where the political intervention happens.

The communication from the White House would have come from Stephen Miller and his office.

And it was clearly stated to the bureaus involved that there was an expectation that their recommendation would be to end temporary protective status.

SAGET: The meeting at the White House, was this a meeting of a principals small group?

HAMILTON: Yes, I think so.

SAGET: You attended you said?

HAMILTON: I believe so.

SAGET: Who else do you recall attending?

HAMILTON: The Attorney General.

Stephen Miller, the Acting Secretary.

SAGET: That'd be Duke?

HAMILTON: Yes.

SAGET: Okay.

SAGET: Did you take any notes during the meeting?

HAMILTON: I don't recall.

SAGET: Do you generally take notes during meetings of this kind?

HAMILTON: No, not anymore.

MacLean: There are notes from the meeting, Duke's personal notes.

And they show that Jeff Sessions was at the meeting.

And Jeff Sessions was urging then Secretary Duke to quote "bite the bullet" and just end TPS for those countries.

ARULANANTHAM: She was pressured in numerous ways, not just in this meeting.

She says specifically, that she's motivated by a desire for an America First immigration policy, which invokes kind of anti-immigrant racist view and has for decades going back to before World War II and it's used as a KKK slogan.

I think it reflects the pressure that she was getting.

TAYLOR: That pressure became very personal.

There were people at the White House who were suggesting to the Acting Secretary that she didn't know what she was talking about.

She wasn't an immigration expert.

And there was a point at which she sat me down and said, "This isn't why I came back into government This isn't what it's supposed to be like.

This is not okay."

SPEAKER: Class of 2019.

Please rise.

(cheering) ELSY: La verdad, extrano a mi pais.

Pero, te fuistes adaptando.

SPEAKER: Now that you are graduates of Washington Latin, I invite you to move your tassels from the right to the left.

Ladies and gentlemen.... ELSY: Y luego tus hijos crecen.

Luego, ellos tienen sus metas.

Y no le puedes cambiar eso de noche a la manana.

STUDENTS: Oh, beautiful!

For spacious skies.

For amber waves of grain.

STUDENT: Congrats!

JOANNA: Thank you!

ELSY: Congratulations!

Lo hicimos!

STUDENTS: America, America.

God shed his grace on thee.

And crowned thy good with brotherhood.

From sea to shining sea.

JUAN: Cuando viajo, y veo esas inmensidades de terreno.

Yo digo Y asi no hay ningun espacio para nosotros? No nos quieren tener aca.

Y tan inmenso que es!

(Adios Amor) (singing in Spanish) JOANNA: My dad loves road trips, so he always likes to take us out.

JUAN: Adios amor, me voy de ti.

JUANCITO: I felt excited because we we're going back to the West Coast.

We went to the Grand Canyon.

JUAN: Mari, Mari, Mari, no esta bien, no mas!

Por favor.

Ya no mas!

Ustedes no me hacen caso.

ELSY: Ibamos todos los veranos todos los cinco.

Pero, lo senti diferente.

Me ponia a pensar Que va a pasar el dia de la corte?

Que va pasar con nosotros ahora?

(overlapping chatter) (applause).

TAYLOR: When they nominated Kirstjen Nielsen to be the confirmed secretary, and she came in the White House was really angry to find out that the Acting Secretary Elaine Duke, had not made final decisions on these issues.

(overlapping chatter) TRUMP: With our new secretary who's just in the position, but I will tell you respected by everybody.

Would you like to say anything?

NIELSEN: Yes, I just want to thank you for your leadership.

And I really look forward to working with all of you learning today about your progress.

As you know, border security, we have to have the wall and the technology and personnel that go with it.

MacLean: So Duke didn't do it.

But Secretary Nielsen did.

SHANNON: From my point of view, walking away from TPS was not only a humanitarian disaster, it was also strategically stupid.

And I realized that if I found myself in a position in which I could not accept the direction that they were taking American foreign policy, I had to make my case.

And if it were not accepted, then it was time for me to go.

NEALON: I am not an open-borders fanatic.

But I believe that we began to cross a line.

And our immigration policy became what I would describe as punitive rather than pragmatic.

And so that's when I decided that I couldn't support it anymore, and I needed to get out.

So I got out.

NIELSEN: Unfortunately, the law requires me if I cannot say that the conditions emanating from the earthquake still exist, regardless of other systemic conditions, I must terminate TPS.

McGOVERN: I had a conversation with her right before they made the determination they were gonna end TPS.

And I said, Well, explain that to me.

Because as somebody who helped write the statute, right, you can grant TPS for a number of reasons.

And violence is one of them.

You know, civil unrest is one of them.

I mean, it is there.

She came and said, "Well, my lawyers said that I can't extend it."

You can extend it just like previous administrations, both Democratic and Republican administrations have.

ARULANANTHAM: I was convinced there must be some legal memo somewhere, which justified the legal position that they had taken.

And they said in the course of the discovery litigation, when we got all these other documents, that there was no such memo.

And being a civil litigator, at first, I was skeptical of that and believed that there had to be such a thing.

But after having seen that they turned over many other documents.

And, you know, we've hunted and hunted, I've come to think maybe it's actually true that there really was no memo explaining this.

ALVARADO: I mean, the fact that the political people disregarded the opinion of experts, people who have a clear understanding of-of the issue, in a way, you know, that demonstrated to us that they weren't interested in addressing the issue, uh, in fixing the situation.

That they were more interested in pushing a political ideology that is about preventing non-white immigrants from coming to the United States.

DURBAN: You said on Fox News that the President used strong language, what was that strong language?

NIELSEN: Let's see it strong language there was.

I apologies, I don't remember specific word.... NEALON: You know, it's really sensitive ground to ascribe racism to somebody else.

So I won't make the mistake of doing that.

He has talked about [deleted] countries, and we all know, to which countries he was referring.

So I think we can take him at his word.

TAYLOR: In the beginning of the administration, if you'd told me that the President's reason for wanting to do this was racial animus, I would have dismissed that out of hand.

But there were times we had meetings with Donald Trump, where he would quite literally say what countries he wanted to increase immigration from, what countries he wanted to decrease immigration from.

And it was not lost on me that the difference between the countries that he described was some had blond, white wealthy people, and some had brown poor people.

TAYLOR: I now look back at the pressure my colleagues were facing on immigration issues and see that as pressure coming directly from the President coming directly from a man who wanted immigrants to be deported from this country, and blocked from coming into this country because he didn't like their race, religion, ethnicity, or creed.

JUAN: listo?

MacLean: After winning before a judge in October, we are back in court again today.

Because this administration...

The challenges that we brought before the court are both constitutional and legal.

One is that this administration completely changed the way that they are making determinations.

They made no acknowledgment that they were making that change.

And they made no explanation of that.

And we allege that that is also in part because of the second claim, which is that this decision was actually motivated by racial animus by discrimination against non-white, non-European immigrants.

And that is a clear violation of the US Constitution.

COURT OFFICER: All rise.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is now in session.

Please be seated.

SINZDAK: May it please the Court.

Gerry Sinzdak appearing on behalf of the government.

There's no evidence in the record, despite the extensive discovery that the district court allowed that plaintiffs can point to you that shows that and I think this is undisputed that either of the secretaries themselves harbored any discriminatory animus.

These were rational decisions.

And in order to get to discriminatory finding here, the district court and the plaintiffs are asking this court to pile inference upon inference.

There's no direct evidence that these, uh... JUDGE CALLAHAN: So you are basically saying there's no evidence of a serious question?

SINZDAK: That's correct, Your Honor.

JUDGE CHRISTEN: Thank you.

Council.

Thank you.

Judge Callahan.

JUDGE CALLAHAN: Alright, thank you.

Good morning.

ARULANANTHAM: Good morning, Your Honor.

Ahilan Arulanantham them for the plaintiffs.

I think the best evidence on that question is the state of mind statements from the secretary.

There's several of them.

I'm doing this as a result of an America First view of the TPS decisions; TPS in general must come to a close... JUDGE NELSON: And you think that shows animus?

ARULANANTHAM: That's consistent with... No, no, the argument is that shows that the President's pressure is influencing the decision maker... JUDGE NELSON: Shocking!

It's the government.

Is there ever a decision?

We always have the president or the administration influencing these decisions.

ARULANANTHAM: But Your Honor, you can't have it both ways, right?

If you accept, yes, the President is, of course influencing this decision.

Well, then the President's potential animus is relevant.

JUDGE CHRISTEN: And so, exactly what are you asking us to review, please?

ARULANANTHAM: We're asking you to find that the district court's reading raises serious questions as to whether animus is motivating this decision.

And if there's a serious question on just whether reasonable people could disagree about how to read this record, that would be a basis to affirm the injunction now, even if the court has serious questions.

JUDGE CALLAHAN: Thank you everyone.

COURT OFFICER: All rise.

(sizzle) ELSY: Se suponia que podemos escuchar pronto de los jueces, este mes... O podria ser que no escuchemos hasta mucho tiempo Te vas a la cama y piensas que va pasar manana.

Si tenenos una respuesta manana.

Si abro mi telefono y tenenos que ver que es lo que paso.

Quiero escuchar la respuesta pronto de los jueces.

Pero a la misma vez, no quiero.

Porque no se, si es negative, como voy a reaccionar.

Como vamos a reaccionar.

(cheering) HECTOR: Happy new year!

REPORTER: Growing concerns about the deadly Corona virus.

(overlapping chatter) REPORTER: Had no option other than to show up despite the health risk.

MARIA: Here's your coffee, sir.

Oh, this is for you.

They all keep saying like oh, we're gonna hear something soon, we're gonna hear something soon.

Then weeks and weeks went by and I was like really like stressed out.

Sometimes I don't really sleep.

I feel like I'm gonna throw up or I start biting my nails.

I just like want to know what's going to happen already.

PROTESTOR: Que queremos?

CROWD: Residencia!

PROTESTOR: Cuando?

CROWD: Ahora!

PROTESTOR: Que queremos?

CROWD: Residencia!

PROTESTOR: Cuando?

CROWD: Ahora!

(chanting in Spanish) ELSY: Cuando recibimos la noticia, yo me quede en shock.

Como sabemos, la corte de apelaciones del noveno circuito le regala el premio a Trump para desplazar a nuestras familias MacLean: They sat on it for over a year.

And ultimately, there was a two-to-one decision by the Ninth Circuit reversing the preliminary injunction.

ALVARADO: Well, it was bad news.

The question was like, okay, where every time that there's a decision like this, we're simply at a different moment.

And we have to stand where we are to redesign the fight.

And we got to make sure that the TPS holders view it like that because otherwise, we will give up.

ELSY: La decision de hoy hace que la lucha por la residencia permanente.

Sea mas fuerte.

Y que nosotros los Tepesianos, tomemos mas fuerza Y nos hagamos fuertes para poder llegar y hacer presion al Congreso que actue porque ya es hora que nosotros tengamos una residencia permanente.

Que queremos!?

CROWD: Residencia!

ELSY: Cuando?

CROWD: Ahora!

ELSY: Gracias!

(cheering) ALVARADO: What TPS holder want and need is legal permanent residency.

They have done everything that they have been asked.

They pay taxes, they have jobs, and they do a criminal background check every 18 months.

So, they're perfect.

VAN HOLLEN: This country needs to make sure that it is welcoming.

ALVARADO: And, you know, the litigation was initially seen as a tool to buy time.

And it's been highly successful, because they were able to survive those four years, and they still have TPS.

And the more time we buy the more time we get to make the political case to keep on saying that TPS holders are people who-who have earned the right to legal permanent residency.

BLITZER: CNN projects Joseph R Biden Jr. is elected the 46th President of the United States, winning the White House and denying President Trump a second term.

(honking and cheering) PRESIDENT BIDEN: The TPS program is something I will move on the first day I'm in office.

Here's the deal.

I think that we should be extending it.

(cheering) Say-hey-hey, good bye.

(chanting in Spanish) ARULANANTHAM: I certainly did not expect that we would be battling this administration over TPS given the things that the President said about this community.

It's not a small thing for the Biden administration, DHS Secretary to sit down with somebody from the academic and advocacy world like me.

I mean, we're literally in an adversarial position in that I represent the plaintiffs and he's the defendant in that lawsuit.

ANNOUNCER: We turn now to our keynote conversation with Secretary Mayorkas and Professor Arulanantham.

ARULANANTHAM: Unless we settled the case, the Biden administration will be in court, defending the Trump-era TPS terminations.

That is still the government's position is that those terminations are valid... SECRETARY MAYORKAS: Ahilan.

Ahilan.

We won't talk about the litigation.

ARULANANTHAM: We will not.

My question is... SECRETARY MAYORKAS: That's all I'll say.

ARULANANTHAM: Okay, fair, fair enough, fair enough.

I guess my question is... SECRETARY MAYORKAS: I mean, let's be, let's be fair.

ARULANANTHAM: Is there, is there anything and I know a lot of people in those communities are watching this right?

Like, is there anything on the horizon for those anything... SECRETARY MAYORKAS: I'm not going to comment.

I can't comment on-on that.

But let me just share with you something that we are a nation of immigrants.

We are also a nation of laws.

And so I would explain to your clients and others, that there is a legal basis for temporary protected status that we adhere to because that is our obligation.

PROTESTORS: Biden!

Escucha!

Estamos en la lucha!

Biden!

Escucha!

Estamos en la lucha!

Biden!

Escucha!

Estamos en la lucha!

ALVARADO: I think that people have lost faith in both parties.

And my characterization of the reality is that immigrants are in the middle of the hate of the Republicans, and the pity and the cowardice of the Democrats, where you don't have the power that you need to change dynamics because they're bigger forces than-than you are.

And when that happens, you know, the only thing that you have is to keep making the moral case, is to keep telling your story is to keep being there.

COURT OFFICER: The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit En Banc session is now in progress.

Please be seated.

SINZDAK: Your Honor, we believe this appeal is moot, that the decisions have been reversed the injunction, and joining those decisions is therefore moot.

JUDGE CALLAHAN: What if Trump wins?

SINZDAK: Your Honor, there's a lot of speculation.

JUDGE KOH: It just begs the question of are you leaving the options open, uh, to do this?

Again, if you're not gonna acknowledge it's a change, and you're not going to acknowledge is not permissible, and the new notice... MacLean: What is tricky about how the Biden administration is trying to wrap this up.

They are sidestepping a fundamental question, which is whether Trump's DHS secretaries made illegal TPS determinations.

ARULANANTHAM: This case is not moot.

Because what we have challenged as an unlawful agency practice is the practice of refusing to consider intervening conditions.

But beyond that, I think it's just the concern about the whipsaw about what comes back and forth.

JUDGE MENDOZA: Well, well, hold on, but it's not just the whipsaw.

It's what that means for the 500,000 people that are out there that are living that every single day.

That's your point, isn't it?

ARULANANTHAM: Yes, your Honor.

They know only that in 18 months, today could be the same as 2016, and 18 months could be the same as 2018 and a legal ruling would change that.

(cheering) ELSY: Muy buenos dias a todos.

Hace cinco anos, mi familia y yo, tomamos la decision de unirnos a esta demanda al principio fue muy dificil.

Sentia miedo a lo que pasaria.

Mis hijos me llenaron de coraje y hacerme fuerte.

Ya que yo queria cumplir las metas que ellos se habian propuesto.

Pero mas aun, manternos unidos como familias.

JUAN: Me pidio el recibo, verdad Y esperate...

Le doy el de la Pizza Hut.

Y me dio dos sodas mas!

ELSY: OOH!

El recibo de la vez que habiamos pedido.

JOANNA: I finally turned 21.

I've been waiting for this day for a while now.

I have the opportunity to petition for my parents to get their permanent residency.

I've been told that it takes about six months or a year... MARIA: He'd already ordered everything.

JOANNA: So for my sister, almost every lawyer that we've visited, I can only recall them saying one or two things.

It's either she goes back to El Salvador or she has to marry a US citizen.

And you know, it was a lot for her to, you know, know that I can help my parents but I can't help her.

MARIA: They're gonna have a green card you know.

Like they're gonna live here like forever now like they don't have to worry about this anymore... Jo's 21.

And of course, like they're worried about me like that was what what about me?

So I'm taking a little break from school.

Yeah, I was just not in it.

And also if I finish getting my degree and then they take TPS away like I'm gonna have to leave you know...

I just keep thinking that over and over and over again.

All I know is that we did have a deadline written we have another extension.

And then like for TPS holders, like it's just like over I guess.

Unless something happens... Another extension.

Like I'm very grateful for these extensions.

But like, when is it going to stop?

Like when am I going to know that I'm going to be here for the rest of my life?

You know?

That's what we want.

We want to be here forever.

You don't want to leave.

I don't want to leave.

CLINTON: We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws.

BUSH: We're a nation of laws and we must enforce our laws.

OBAMA: Even as we are a nation of immigrants, we're also a nation of laws.

It's about who we are as a country and who we want to be for future generations.