Suit Challenges Unreasonable Delays in Granting Citizenship

Update

The court has granted the plaintiffs' motion for class certification and rejected a government motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Six of the plaintiffs were naturalized. The lawsuit is going forward with them remaining as representatives of the class in this class-action suit.

In a class-action lawsuit filed on October 29, 2007, seven people in the Seattle area are challenging the government's unlawful and unreasonable delays in handling their applications to become U.S. citizens. All are legal permanent residents who have waited years for the government to make a decision on their requests to become citizens – far beyond the 120-day deadline specified in federal law.

Representing them are the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington (ACLU), the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), and Rita Latsinova and Alfred Day from the law firm of Stoel Rives LLP. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

"Our clients are already lawful permanent residents who have put down roots in the community. Denying their rights to become citizens when they have fulfilled all legal requirements doesn’t make us safer, it just undermines democracy," said staff attorney Matt Adams of NWIRP.

"The government's failure to act leaves these individuals in limbo. Many of them have spouses and children who are U.S. citizens, and they worry that when traveling, they might be prevented from returning to their homes in America. They also want to be able to vote and participate fully in civic life," said Sarah Dunne, legal director of the ACLU of Washington.

Federal law says that the government must make a determination on naturalization applications within 120 days for individuals who have successfully completed their citizenship examinations. In recent years, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has routinely disregarded this deadline in order for the FBI to conduct "name checks" that are not required by regulation or statute, and even though the applicants have already been cleared through separate FBI criminal background checks. As a result, many applicants have been waiting for years to become citizens, for no good reason.

The lawsuit seeks to have the government complete name checks for plaintiffs and issue a decision on their naturalization applications within 90 days.

The problem of unreasonable delays is widespread. NWIRP is aware of nearly a hundred local immigrants whose naturalizations are overdue, and attorneys for the plaintiffs believe that hundreds more in Washington are facing similar delays. The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status for the lawsuit to cover the numerous people affected by the government’s inaction.

Plaintiffs in the suit are:

• Dr. Vafa Ghazi-Moghaddam, an electrical engineer for a software company developing wireless technologies and a resident of Seattle. He came to the U.S. from Iran on a student visa in 1991 to pursue a doctoral degree at the University of Minnesota and has been a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. since 1999.

• Lin Huang, a resident of Renton who lives with her husband and their two children. She came to the U.S. from China based on a visa petition that her husband, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, filed on her behalf. She has been a lawful permanent resident since 1996. Her two children were born here and are U.S. citizens.

• Dr. Roshanak Roshandel, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Seattle University and a resident of Bellevue. She came to the U.S. from Iran on a student visa in 1996, earned her undergraduate, masters, and doctoral degrees in this country, and has been a lawful permanent resident since 2001. Her husband is a naturalized U.S. citizen, and their daughter, who was born in the U.S., is also a citizen.

• Hawo Ahmed, a student at Highline Community College in Des Moines and a resident of SeaTac. She and her family came to the U.S. as refugees from Somalia, and she has been a lawful permanent resident since 2000. Her mother and sisters are naturalized citizens.

• Ahmad Alkabra, a project manager in the IT industry and a resident of Issaquah. He came to the U.S. as a student with a Palestinian passport and is married to a U.S. citizen.

• Mohammad Reza Aidinejad, an engineer for the Boeing Company and a resident of Issaquah. He is a citizen of Iran and first came to the U.S. in 1986.

• Zahra Abedin, a resident of Bellevue. She is a citizen of Iran and was admitted to the U.S. as a refugee in 2000.

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