40,000 Asylum-seeking immigrants file class-action suit against federal government
Asylum-seeking immigrants file class-action suit against federal government over interview backlog
EXCLUSIVE: The bombshell lawsuit claims immigration services have unlawfully delayed the processing of applications for more than 40,000 immigrants. Federal statue states applicants should be interviewed within 45 days and a decision made within 180 days 'absent extraordinary circumstances.'
BY JOHN MARZULLI
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, July 4, 2014, 2:30 AM
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New Yorkers call on Congress to take action on immigration reform in Foley Square in April.
More than 40,000 immigrants who are seeking asylum in the U.S. are stuck in a federal limbo waiting up to two years to be interviewed about their applications, a bombshell lawsuit charges.
The class-action suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court accuses top officials of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of unlawfully delaying the processing and resolution of asylum applications.
Under federal statue, applicants are supposed to be interviewed within 45 days of filing and a decision reached within 180 days “absent extraordinary circumstances,” according to the suit.
What’s causing the backlog appears to be the database used by USCIS to schedule asylum interviews. The suit says that a computer creates a monthly calendar of “slots” for interviews based on the availability of officers at eight regional offices throughout the nation.
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Supporters of immigration reform, including a Mariachi band, gathered to call for action.
But not every new applicant ends up getting called for an interview and they end up dumped in a backlog category.
The computer selects the next batch of interviews from the newest filings so “the longer a case is pending the less likely it is to be scheduled for an interview,” lawyer Paul O’Dwyer said in the suit filed last month.
O’Dwyer is representing 17 plaintiffs who are identified in the complaint only by their initials and hail from a wide range of countries, including Peru, Lebanon and Jamaica.
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Surge of undocumented immigrant children overwhelms U.S. facilities
Among them is L.M. She is a transsexual from Nicaragua who filed for asylum in August 2012 citing threats because of her gender and sexual orientation and is still waiting to be scheduled for an interview.
The plaintiffs all reside in the U.S. and none is currently detained, O’Dwyer told The Daily News.
While the number of asylum applications over the past two years has been fairly stable, the backlogged cases have ballooned from 12,450 in January 2012 to 45,193 in March 2014, the suit says, citing USCIS statistics.
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Immigration activists rally on the the steps of the New York Public Library in January, voicing support for the DREAM Act.
A spokesman for USCIS declined to comment on the pending litigation.
The suit is demanding that Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis oversee the process of reducing the backlog.
Once granted asylum an immigrant can remain in the U.S. indefinitely and their family members may also be eligible for asylum.
jmarzulli@nydailynews.com
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