Settlement brings 350 immigrants close to citizenship




Aug 12, 2008 at 11:41 PM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 12, 2008 at 11:41 PM PDT
By JOHN IWASAKI, Seattle P-I He arrived in the U.S. from Iran on a student visa, gained legal permanent residency, applied for citizenship and served as president of the Fremont Neighborhood Council.

Vafa Ghazi-Moghaddam, an electrical engineer who likes politics, dreamed of becoming an American, of voting, of doing more than "participating in the discussions."

Tired of waiting for three years for his citizenship application to be processed, he joined three other immigrants in filing a federal class-action lawsuit in October 2007 that challenged the delay. He became a citizen on June 19.

A preliminary settlement reached Monday in U.S. District Court before Judge Marsha Pechman potentially could allow about 350 more immigrants to join the émigré in gaining citizenship in time to vote in this fall's presidential elections.

"I'm very excited," Ghazi-Moghaddam said Tuesday. "My case was resolved, but I'm very interested in other people's cases."

Under the preliminary settlement, the federal government agreed to deadlines for completing the citizenship process for plaintiffs who had waited up to five years for a decision on their applications.

The delays ran counter to federal law, which calls for the Department of Homeland Security to make a decision within 120 days after an applicant has passed the naturalization exam.

A fairness hearing before Pechman will be held Aug. 28 on the preliminary settlement, though Matt Adams of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, doubts that any of his clients will raise objections.

"More than half had hoped to vote in the last presidential election," Adams said.

"The delay has been beyond belief for them. They will be able to fully participate in a democratic society."

A spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Services declined to comment on pending litigation. She previously indicated that delays stemmed not from her agency but from the "name check" conducted by the FBI, in which an applicant's name is checked against those in the agency's database.

Applicants already have undergone reviews of their name, fingerprint and background before the FBI's name check, and law or regulation does not require that extra step, Adams said.

The preliminary settlement compels Citizenship and Immigration Services to take action on the citizenship applications of 283 individuals and to administer the oath of citizenship to those eligible no later than Sept. 19.

About 65 additional applicants would complete the same process no later than Oct. 18.

In both cases, eligible applicants would be naturalized in time to register to vote in the Nov. 4 elections.

Unsuccessful applicants could challenge denials of their citizenship requests, but could not sue the government under the terms of the preliminary settlement.

Among other provisions, the government would not admit wrongdoing and would pay $185,000 in attorneys fees and costs.

The suit was filed in October 2007 on behalf of four legal permanent residents, including Ghazi-Moghaddam. Pechman certified the suit as a class-action in April, the first such certification among numerous suits filed across the country by would-be citizens, Adams said.

Ghazi-Moghaddam sued three years after passing his naturalization exam in 2004. Officials told him the delay could be because his name was similar to others in the FBI database.

"Even if there's a name similarity, it shouldn't take four years," he said. "If it's a matter of national security, they should find out quicker that a person is a threat or not."

Before the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America, the FBI checked only whether an individual was a subject of an investigation. After the attacks, the agency also began checking whether a person's name was listed as a reference in an investigation, such as being an associate of the main subject, a victim or a witness.

"Historically, in our files, we've found that less than 1 percent (of persons whose names are checked) had potential derogatory information on them," FBI Special Agent Fred Gutt said.

In 2003, immigration officials asked the agency to recheck 2.7 million names, in addition to its normal 3 million or so an- nual requests from federal and state agencies for name checks.

Congress approved hiring extra contractors last year to whittle down that backlog.

Although Ghazi-Moghaddam is convinced that he is a citizen today because he filed the suit, Gutt isn't so sure of the effect on other plaintiffs.

"Would the settlement cause our name check (process) to prioritize those people? I'm not aware of that," he said.


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