CAIR-Columbus announced today the filing of a federal lawsuit in Southern 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 an Iraqi green card holder, whose citizenship application has been pending for nearly two and a half years without adjudication. The Plaintiff in this case has no criminal history and has been a permanent resident of the United States for close to nine years.
The Plaintiff has been repeatedly told by USCIS that they are unable to determine when the adjudication of his case will be completed. The Plaintiff has made numerous other inquiries with the USCIS on the status of his application but received the same proforma response from the USCIS. He also asked for assistance from his Congressman Steve Stivers’ office to contact USCIS on his behalf. Even though representatives from Congressman Stivers’ office contacted USCIS on two different occasions, they received the same proforma response from USCIS – that Plaintiff’s application is still currently pending.
CAIR-Columbus attorneys have noted a recent increase in delays of all types of immigration applications. Since the beginning of 2017 alone, CAIR-Columbus has filed immigration delay lawsuits for fourteen different plaintiffs. Twelve of those lawsuits have already been successfully resolved in favor of the Plaintiffs.
“USCIS has been instructed by the Attorney General and the President to ‘rigorously enforce all grounds of inadmissibility and/or denial of immigration benefits’ and we believe this is contributing to USCIS indefinitely delaying applications while they look for any reason to deny, even for minor issues that typically would not result in a denial,” said CAIR-Columbus Legal Director Romin Iqbal.
“However, when lives are put on hold and families kept separated, we are left with no choice but to continue filing these lawsuits until USCIS stops this practice of unreasonable and unexplained delays” added Iqbal.
CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding. The CAIR-Ohio Affiliate has three chapters – Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati.