Mónica Ramírez Almadani

Mónica Ramírez Almadani (born 1979)[1] is an American lawyer who is president and CEO of Public Counsel, a pro bono law firm.[2] She is a nominee to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

For the civil rights attorney and activist, see Mónica Ramírez (activist).
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Ramírez and the second or maternal family name is Almadani.

Mónica Ramírez Almadani
Personal details
Born
Moníca Marie Ramírez

1979 (age 43–44)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
EducationHarvard University (BA)
Stanford University (JD)

Early life and education

Mónica Ramírez Almadani was raised in Huntington Park, California, by parents who were immigrants from Mexico.[2][3] She received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University in 2001 and a juris doctor from Stanford Law School in 2004.[3]

Career

In 2004 and 2005, Ramírez served as a law clerk for Judge Warren J. Ferguson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. From 2005 to 2009, she worked as staff attorney at the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project in San Francisco.

In 2009, Ramírez joined the United States Department of Justice, serving as counsel to then-Assistant Secretary Tom Perez. She later served as senior counsel and deputy chief of staff for Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole.

From 2012 to 2015, she served as an assistant United States attorney for the Central District of California. From 2015 to 2017, Ramírez served as special assistant attorney general in the California Department of Justice and Senior Advisor to then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris.[4] From 2017, she worked as special counsel at Covington & Burling in their San Francisco office. From 2019 to 2021, Ramírez was a visiting professor of law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law[2] and co-director of its Immigrant Rights Clinic.[5]

In 2021, Ramírez became president of the nonprofit Public Counsel, a pro bono law firm.[6]

Notable cases as lawyer

In 2017, Ramírez represented Juan Manuel Montes, then a 23-year-old illegal immigrant deported to Mexico despite being granted relief from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program or DACA.[7][8]

In 2018, Ramírez represented the California state legislature as amicus curiae in a Chicago suit challenging Attorney General Jeff Sessions' conditioning of grants to the end of sanctuary city policies.[9][10]

In 2020, Ramírez represented Kelvin Hernandez Roman, an El Salvadoran and Garden Grove, California resident who sued the Orange County Sheriff's Department for failing to comply with California sanctuary laws. Although charged with no crime, the Orange County Sheriff's Office turned him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and he was held for nine months in ICE's Adelanto Detention Center. Roman's suit alleged that the county violated California Values Act.[5][11]

Nomination to the district court

On December 21, 2022, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Ramírez to serve as a United States district judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.[6] On January 23, 2023, her nomination was sent to the Senate. President Biden nominated her to the seat vacated by Judge John Kronstadt, who assumed senior status on April 1, 2022.[12] On February 15, 2023, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee.[13] On April 20, 2023, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–9 vote.[14] Her nomination is pending before the Senate.

References
  1. "Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
  2. Ormseth, Matthew (June 14, 2021). "Former DOJ official is new head of pro bono law firm Public Counsel". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  3. "Mónica Ramírez Almadani, Visiting Assistant Clinical Law Professor and Co-director of Immigrant Rights Clinic at UCI Law, Named President and CEO of Public Counsel". www.law.uci.edu. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
  4. "Mónica Ramírez". Equal Justice Works. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
  5. "Garden Grove Resident Improperly Held by Orange County Sheriff's Department Files Suit". University of California, Irvine School of Law.
  6. "President Biden Names Twenty-Eighth Round of Judicial Nominees" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. December 21, 2022. Retrieved December 21, 2022. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  7. Nieves, Ray Sanchez,Laura Jarrett,Rosalina (August 23, 2017). "Judge attacked by Trump could order return of deported man". CNN.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. "Deported DACA recipient sues Trump administration". April 19, 2017.
  9. "LA Sues DOJ For Tying Policing Funds To Immigration - Law360". www.law360.com.
  10. Voruganti, Harsh (January 31, 2023). "Monica Ramirez Almadani – Nominee to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California".
  11. "Immigrant sues Orange County Sheriff's Department for turning him over to ICE". August 25, 2020.
  12. "Nominations Sent to the Senate" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. January 23, 2023.
  13. "Nominations". Washington, D.C.: United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. February 14, 2023.
  14. "Results of Executive Business Meeting – April 20, 2023" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Retrieved April 20, 2023.


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