Border Abuses Workshop
El Paso, Texas
May 15-16, 2014

We look forward to seeing you at the Border Abuses Workshop. Below, please find the final version of the agenda. Included underneath the title of each session are bullet points that illustrate the substance of the discussion, including a combination of recommended and required reading materials. Required reading materials are listed in red and marked with an asterisk; recommended materials are in blue. We suggest that all participants review the agenda prior to the workshop, consider which small group sessions they would like to attend, and complete the required readings beforehand.

If you have questions about any of the information posted online or regarding the workshop in general, please contact Seth Garfinkel at sgarfinkel@immcouncil.org.

• Scholarship Reimbursement Form (English)
• Scholarship Reimbursement Form (Spanish)
• Agenda (Spanish)
• Agenda (Printer-friendly)

Thursday, May 15, 2014

11:30 Registration and lunch

12:00-12:30 Opening remarks and introductions

12:30-1:30 Voices from the Border
Speakers: Albert Armendariz, Barbara Hines, Vicki Gaubeca, Mary Kenney (Moderator)

• • *Murillo, et al. v. Musegades, et al.
  • *How a Small High School Community Changed Border Patrol Operations by Juan Sybert-Coronado
  • Mendoza, et al. v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, et al.
  • Settlement Argreement, Murillo v. Musegades

1:30-3:00 Advocacy Strategies & Challenges
Speakers: Andrea Guerrero, Hannah Hafter, Chris Rickerd, Vicki Gaubeca (Moderator)

• Overview of available strategies (including documentation, FOIA, administrative complaints, administrative advocacy, media)
• Lessons learned from particular campaigns
• Partnerships with grassroots & non-traditional allies
• Obstacles to effective advocacy
• Complementing each other’s efforts
  • Apply DOJ “Smart on Crime” Principles and Priorities to Border Prosecutions
  • Strengthening CBP with the Use of Body-Worn Cameras
  • Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP’s) 100-Mile Rule
  • Press Briefing on PERF report
  • PBS Need to Know three-part series “Crossing the Line”
  • SBCC Better Border Briefing
  • Recommendations to DHS to Improve Complaint Processing

3:15-3:30 Networking Break

3:30-5:00 Legal Strategies & Challenges
Speakers: Matt Adams, Javier Maldonado, Lorena Morrow, Mitra Ebadolahi (Moderator)

• Challenges in the binational context
• Damages actions
• Administrative complaints
• Class actions
• FOIA litigation
• Impact litigation
• Fact-finding & other challenges
• Humanizing the plaintiffs
  • Lopez-Venegas, et al. v. Beers, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, et al. – First Amended Complaint
  • Sanchez, et al. v. United States Office of Border Patrol, et al. – Complaint for Injunctive and Declaratory Relief
  • Accountability Litigation 101

5:00-6:00 Collaboration Process Discussion
Facilitators: Astrid Dominguez, Julie Mao, Trina Realmuto (Moderator)

• Framing of the goals for this session
• Discussion of the challenges of collaboration between advocates and litigators
• Potential solutions for how to work together toward our common goal of integrated advocacy
  • Steady Work: A Practitioner’s Reflections on Political Lawyering
  • Calling All Radicals: How Grassroots Organizers Can Save Our Democracy
  • What Katrina Revealed

7:00 Group Dinner: L & J Cafe (transportation provided, dinner at participants’ expense)

Friday, May 16, 2014

8:15 Breakfast

8:30-9:15 Demo of ACLU-NM Online Binational Abuse Documentation System
Speaker: Alyssa Telander

9:15-9:30 Networking Break

9:30-11:15 Small Group Sessions

1. Roving border patrols (including CBP collaboration with local law enforcement)
   Facilitators: Glenda Aldana Madrid, Brian Erickson, and Benjamin Prado
   • Geography of roving border patrols
   • Mixing advocacy and litigation to combat roving border patrols
   • Replicating advocacy/litigation victories along and across the border
     • ACLU-AZ roving patrols complaint, October 2013
     • ACLU-AZ KYR with Border Patrol in English & Spanish
     • NWIRP’s complaint regarding interpretation assistance by BP agents, May 2012
     • Department of Agriculture civil rights decision regarding interpretation assistance by BP agents, April 2012
     • NWIRP press release on federal agency rules against use of border patrol agents as interpreters
     • CBP Memo on interpretation assistance, November 2012
     • NWIRP’s Ramirez-Rangel complaint, filed in Washington state court
     • Ramirez-Rangel order issued by the state court
     • Vargas Ramirez complaint, filed in federal court in Washington
     • Frias order (read only Sections III.A. 1-2)
2. Dangerous repatriation practices (including failure to return belongings)
   Facilitators: Esmerelda Flores, James Duff Lyall
   • Missing money/property
     • *Bordering on Criminal: The Routing Abuse of Migrants in the Removal System– Possessions Taken and Not Returned
     • CBP Property Policies
     • ACLU of San Diego Memo (forthcoming)
   • Medical repatriations
     • *NYLPI Study on Discharge, Deportation, and Dangerous Journeys
     • The Practice of Medical Repatriation: The Privatization of Immigration Enforcement and Denial of Human Rights
     • Disposable Workers: Applying A Human Rights Framework to Analyze Duties Owed to Seriously Injured or Ill Migrants
     • ACLU of Arizona Public Records Request
     • Deported While Unconscious: American Hospitals Quietly Deport Hundreds Of Undocumented Patients
     • Return to Sender: Evaluating the Medical Repatriations of Uninsured Immigrants
     • Hospitals Deporting Patients = Injustice
   • Other dangerous repatriations (ATEP, nighttime repats, family separation & vulnerable populations)
     • *Washington Office on Latin America Memo on Unsafe Deportations
     • Local Arrangement for Repatriation of Mexican Nationals (Arizona)
     • Local Arrangement for Repatriation of Mexican Nationals (San Diego)
     • Coons 2 Amendment Adopted in Senate Judiciary Committee
     • Washington Office on Latin America: U.S. Unsafe Deportation Practices
     • Jesuit Refugee Service Sign-on supporting Coons amendment to S. 744
3. No process removals
   Facilitators: Sean Riordan, Trina Realmuto, Victoria Lopez
   • Background discussion on ways that immigration agencies typically execute summary removals: expedited removal, reinstatement of removal, voluntary return
   • What we can learn about the possibilities for legal and administrative advocacy from past and current experiences with summary removals
   • The next generation of legal and administrative challenges to summary removals
     • Deportation Without Due Process
     • Reinstatement of Removal Practice Advisory
     • Lopez-Venegas, et al. v. Beers, et al., First Amended Complaint
     • Lopez-Venegas, et al. v. Beers, et al., Order on Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss and Plaintiffs’ Motions for Preliminary Injunction
     • Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, Guide on Expedited Removal and Reinstatement of Removal
     • University of Miami School of Law Immigration Clinic, Expedited Removal, Reinstatement of Removal and Administrative Removal Proceedings
     • AILA Seeks Examples of CBP Denying Individuals Access to Credible Fear Interviews
     • U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Report on Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal

11:15-12:00 Reports from Small Group Sessions

12:15-12:45 Lunch

12:45-1:15 Update on CBP Abuses Campaign, National Police Accountability Project & Migrants’ Rights Work in Mexico
Speakers: Seth Garfinkel, Brigitt Keller, Blanca Navarette, Melissa Crow (Moderator)

1:30-3:15 Small Group Sessions

1. Conditions in CBP short-term detention facilities
   Facilitators: Jen Podkul, Mary Kenney, Karen Tumlin 
   • Documenting cases of people held, including details of where held, and whether released in U.S. or repatriated to Mexico
   • Organizing for local access policies, based on national ICE model
   • Strategizing for how best to use the media
   • Legislative and administrative advocacy over detention conditions.
     • *Detained Border Crossers May Find Themselves Sent to “the Freezers,” Center for Investigative Reporting
     • *Short Term Custody Solutions, Women’s Refugee Commission and AIJustice
     • 2008 Detention Policy
     • AIJustice FTCA administrative complaint
     • Senate Bill 1817, Humane Short Term Custody Act
     • HR 3130, Protect Family Values at the Border Act
2. Improper use of force
   Facilitators: Andrea Guerrero, Araceli Martínez-Olguín
   • Tools that attorneys use to try to improve the use of force dynamic
   • Tools that community advocates use to improve the use of force dynamic
   • Gaps in the advocacy process and making litigation and other advocacy work better together on use of force issues
     • *Washington Monthly article providing a good context and overview of abuse incidents and rock throwing in particular (June 2013)
     • Socorro Quintero Perez, et al. v. CBP, et al. – Complaint
     • Hernandez, et al. v. United States of America, et al. – ACLU amicus brief
     • Letter from 16 members of Congres calling for investigations of use of force at CBP (May 2012)
     • OIG report on use of force prepared in response to Congressional request (Sep 2013)
     • LA Times article revealing damning recommendations from PERF regarding CBP use of force (Feb 2014)
     • ACLU Use of Force recommendations (Feb 2014)

3:15-3:45 Reports from Small Group Sessions

3:45-4:15 Moving Forward – Opportunities for Collaboration
Facilitators: Brian Erickson, Mitra Ebadolahi

4:15-4:30 Wrap-Up & Evaluations