Over 4,000 Suits Filed in 2007 Against ICE For Delay in "Name Checks"

There were only 680 suits filed in 2005, but they have exploded to over 4,000 in 2007. At this time over 61,000 people have been waiting for 2 years on their "name checks,"

Its a brutal double bind. People are insulted and harassed by ICE for not having documents, yet ICE is responsible for the delay in processing green card applications...

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Caught in a bureaucratic black hole

Applicants seeking U.S. citizenship languish for years as the FBI conducts cumbersome records checks. Lawsuits are a result.
By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 10, 2007


Seeking to become a U.S. citizen, Biljana Petrovic filed her application, completed her interview and passed her civics test.

More than three years later, she is still waiting to be naturalized -- held up by an FBI name-check process that has been criticized as slow, inefficient and a danger to national security.

Petrovic, a stay-at-home mother in Los Altos, Calif., who has no criminal record, has sued the federal government to try to speed up the process. She said it's as if her application has slipped into a "black hole."

"It's complete frustration," said Petrovic, who is originally from the former Yugoslavia and is a naturalized Canadian citizen. "It's not like I am applying to enter the country. I have been here for 19 years."

Nearly 320,000 people were waiting for their name checks to be completed as of Aug. 7, including more than 152,000 who had been waiting for more than six months, according to the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. More than 61,000 had been waiting for more than two years.

Applicants for permanent residency or citizenship have lost jobs, missed out on student loans and in-state tuition, and been unable to vote or bring relatives into the country. The delays have prompted scores of lawsuits around the country.

Already this fiscal year, more than 4,100 suits have been filed against the citizenship and immigration agency, compared with 2,650 last year and about 680 in 2005. The mandamus suits ask federal judges to compel immigration officials to adjudicate the cases. The majority of the cases were prompted by delays in checking names, spokesman Chris Bentley said...

for complete article:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-citizenship10sep10,1,5647808.story