CAIR-Columbus announced today the filing of a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of Ohio against the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Attorney General of the United States, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), on behalf of a Muslim legal permanent resident from Uzbekistan whose citizenship application has been pending for an unreasonable amount of time – well over seventeen months without an interview.
The plaintiff, who has been a permanent legal resident since 2006, has no criminal history but has been subjected to secondary screening and travel delays which indicates he may have been placed on one of the government’s overly broad watch lists. When a person has been put on a list and then applies for citizenship, they are often subjected to CARRP – the Controlled Application Application Review and Resolution Program – which effectively blacklists applicants as a “national security concern” even though they are not, and prohibits them from upgrading their immigration status despite eligibility to do so.
CARRP, which was implemented as a secret policy by USCIS in 2008, was never approved by Congress and has never been incorporated into the INA. CARRP labels applicants “national security concerns” based on vague and overbroad criteria that often turn on lawful activity, national origin, and innocuous associations. These criteria are so untethered from the statutory criteria that determine whether or not a person is eligible for the immigration status they seek, and are so general that they necessarily ensnare individuals who pose no threat to the security of the United States. The result is that immigration applications of those placed on CARRP are often left pending indefinitely.
CAIR-Columbus attorneys continue to see an increase in delays of all types of immigration applications, many which are likely due to CARRP. Since the beginning of 2017 alone, CAIR-Columbus has filed immigration delay lawsuits for over thirty-three different plaintiffs. The vast majority of those lawsuits have already been successfully resolved in favor of the Plaintiffs.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, requests the Court to order USCIS to immediately issue a decision on the pending application and also requests attorney fees and damages.
CAIR-Columbus is encouraging anyone experiencing a similar type of immigration application delay to request help by filing a report on the website at www.cair-columbus.com.