[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 186 (Thursday, November 9, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S5441]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                 Nomination of Monica Ramirez Almadani

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm 
Monica Ramirez Almadani to the U.S. District Court for the Central 
District of California.
  Born in La Mirada, CA, Ms. Ramirez Almadani received her A.B. from 
Harvard University in 2001 and her J.D. from Stanford Law School in 
2004. She then clerked for Judge Warren J. Ferguson on the United 
States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 2004 to 2005. Ms. 
Ramirez Almadani began her legal career in 2005 at the ACLU's 
Immigrants' Rights Project, practicing immigration and civil rights 
litigation for 4 years, including successfully arguing before the Ninth 
Circuit. She then served the Justice Department for 6 years in a 
variety of roles, including counsel to the Assistant Attorney General 
for the Civil Rights Division, deputy chief of staff to the Deputy 
Attorney General, and assistant U.S. attorney--AUSA--in the U.S. 
attorney's office for the Central District of California. As an AUSA, 
she prosecuted child pornography, human trafficking, narcotics, 
immigration fraud, public corruption, and other serious crimes.
  In 2015, then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris appointed Ms. 
Ramirez Almadani Special Assistant Attorney General to oversee the 
California Justice Department's Criminal Division and the Division of 
Recidivism Reduction and Reentry. Then, in 2017, she joined a large law 
firm as special counsel, focusing on white collar criminal defense, 
internal investigations, and complex commercial litigation, in addition 
to pro bono immigration work. She then became codirector of the 
University of California, Irvine School of Law's Immigrant Rights 
Clinic from 2019 to 2021. She currently serves as the president and CEO 
of Public Counsel, the largest public interest law firm in the country.
  The American Bar Association rated Ms. Ramirez Almadani ``well 
qualified'' to serve on the Central District of California. The late 
Senator Feinstein strongly supported her nomination, as does Senator 
Padilla.
  I will be supporting this outstanding nominee, and I urge all of my 
colleagues to do the same.