The president, Joe Biden, will announce the nomination of two Latino judges, Ana de Alba and Irma Ramírez, to serve as magistrates of the federal courts of appeals for the Ninth and Fifth Circuits, respectively.
This is the thirty-second round of judicial nominations that Biden has proposed since he arrived at the White House in January 2021, with a total of 163 judges nominated.
His predecessor, Donald Trump, appointed more than 220 justices in four years.
"This election is fulfilling the president's promise to make sure the nation's courts
reflect the diversity of our country, one of our greatest strengths
," a White House source said in an email to reporters a day before the election. official announcement.
Should her Senate nomination be confirmed,
Ramírez would become the
first Hispanic woman
to serve as a judge on the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, a body with jurisdiction over the federal courts in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
While
Alba would be the fourth Latino appeals magistrate for the Ninth Circuit
, with jurisdiction over Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
From a small ranch to a federal court
Irma Ramírez grew up on a small ranch in Tokyo, Texas, the daughter of a Mexican immigrant and a mother who also came from an immigrant family.
In a profile prepared for the Federal Bar Association, she highlighted the values her family instilled in her, particularly the importance of working hard and trying hard in school.
Judge Irma C. Ramírez, Magistrate of the Northern District of Texas.Federal Bar Association
“It was in the rhetoric class that I really discovered how much I loved debating,” Alba said.
Her passion led her to study first at West Texas State University and then at Southern Methodist University School of Law, graduating in 1991. She worked at the prestigious law firm of Purnell, Rain & Harrell (now Locke, Lord, Bissell & Liddell LLP) and her experience as a criminal litigator catapulted her into a position as a criminal prosecutor.
In 2002 she became a federal judge for the Northern District of Texas, where he has served ever since.
She has defined her legal philosophy as "applying the law as written" and "identifying the issues and applying the law."
The "proud" daughter of Mexican immigrants
Ana de Alba grew up in a family of Mexican immigrants who worked in the agricultural fields of the Central Valley of California.
“I am the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants,” she declared during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in April 2022. “My parents immigrated to the United States and brought with them their deep-rooted values of honesty, humility, hard work, and
determination
to make sure their children get a good education.”
Judge Ana de Alba, magistrate of the Eastern District of California.
US District Court
She worked in the fields together with her three brothers and her two parents
, while she went to school in the afternoons and helped her mother by cleaning houses to earn extra money in her free time.
Until she was 15 years old, she said that she slept on the floor of her living room in a sleeping bag, because her family did not have money to buy her a bed.
"At the end of the day, we knew we had each other and that's all we needed," he told the Senate.
Her dedication to studies led her to the Berkley University School of Law in California.
After graduating in 2007, she worked at the law firm of Lang, Richt & Patch, where she became a partner in 2013. From 2019 to 2022, she served as a California Superior Court Judge in Fresno County. .
She and she was appointed as a federal judge for the Eastern District of California since 2022.
