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CAIR bulletin – June 15, 2007
Three year-old child of Muslim citizen barred from US
CAIR helps reunite VA Muslim family
HERNDON, VA, June 15, 2007 - A 3-year-old Muslim toddler will be reunited with his family after intervention by CAIR's Maryland and Virginia chapter (CAIR-MD/VA).
On Tuesday, June 12, CAIR-MD/VA called on immigration officials to explain why the child of a Virginia father who is a U.S. citizen and a mother who is a permanent resident has been denied entry to this country for two years.
It was suspected that the denial may have been related to the child's name, "Ahmedyassine," which is similar to that of a Palestinian leader assassinated by Israel. The child has been living with an aunt in Morocco while the immigration approval process was stalled. Yesterday, immigration authorities said the child could join his family in Virginia.
"We are thankful that this family will be reunited after such a long period of forced separation," said CAIR-MD/VA Civil Rights Manager Morris Days. "We urge government officials to examine the cause for these delays and to take appropriate measures to make sure that all immigrants are treated fairly, regardless of religion or national origin."
The child's father, who lives in Falls Church, Va., came to the United States from Morocco in 1997 after winning the U.S. immigration lottery. He became a citizen in 2005. His wife was granted permanent residence status in 2006. For the past two years, the child has been living with an aunt in Morocco while the immigration approval process has been stalled.
Many Muslims report that they are facing similar issues with immigration delays. CAIR yesterday released its annual report on the status of Muslim civil rights in the United States. The report indicated that immigration issues such as citizenship and naturalization delays were a top concern for American Muslims in 2006.
East Valley Tribune - June 10, 2007
Legal immigration: Red tape snags ID checks
Sarah N. Lynch
…..The FBI has always conducted routine background checks on people seeking immigration benefits, but the events of Sept. 11, 2001, made the process longer. About a year after the tragedy, USCIS asked the FBI to re-examine all of its applicants before granting any more immigration benefits. In December 2002, it returned about 2.7 million names to the FBI for additional checks.
That caused a massive backlog for the agency, which already receives 67,000 namecheck requests a week from more than 70 federal and state agencies.
In addition, the name checks now take longer than before Sept. 11 because the FBI has broadened the scope of its search. As a result, people trying to become residents and citizens the legal way are finding the path long and arduous.
“After 9/11, we not only searched the main subject files, but we also searched our reference files, which greatly expands our search and the time it takes,” said Paul Bresson, an FBI spokesman. “You are searching not only to see if this individual was the subject of our investigation, but if at any point this individual surfaced in an investigation.
“That greatly increases the chance of someone getting a hit on their name.”
Although government officials say the name checks do not target people of certain races or religions, many in the Muslim community feel theirs are the majority of the names that produce “hits” in the database.
Immigration lawyers say the bulk of their clients who come seeking legal assistance because of security checks are of Middle Eastern descent.
“We’re not in a business of denying anyone ... a benefit they are entitled to,” Bresson said. “We are trying to do the best we can with the resources we have and I can tell you unequivocally, we do the process ... without any regard to ethnicity or religious affiliation.”
But the Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has received so many complaints from the Phoenix area about namecheck delays, it decided to hold evening meetings about immigration to help answer questions.
“We believe in strong security,” said Mohammed Abu-Hannoud, the civil rights director of CAIR Arizona and a Mesa resident. “But the other question is how can we be supportive of strong security if this prevents law-abiding residents who are paying taxes and contributing to the wealth of this country from becoming citizens?”
Currently, the FBI has 222,110 name checks for USCIS that have been pending for 120 days or more. By law, USCIS gets 120 days to decide whether or not to grant citizenship. There are no time restraints on granting green cards or asylum…..
Still, the delays can have a big impact on peoples’ lives.
Mesa resident Ahmad Ewais, a legal immigrant who first came to the U.S. 14 years ago, said he was not able to attend his mother’s funeral in Jordan two years ago without the risk of losing his residency status. He had not seen his mother since 1993, he said.
Although he applied for his green card in 2001 and had his interview in April 2005, his name had still not cleared the FBI database.
He tried writing to the Department of Homeland Security to ask the agency to expedite the name check, but without success.
“This is a humane issue,” he said. “You cannot prevent people from seeing their family. My father. My mother. My brothers and sisters. I haven’t seen them in a while. I’m a human being. I have feelings.”
Some immigrants have not been able to renew their driver’s licenses or obtain work authorizations because they cannot get the proper paperwork in time to prove they are here legally, according to immigration attorneys and advocacy groups.
Some people who have lost licenses or work permits were afraid to talk to the Tribune for this report. They feared speaking out against the government could harm their chances at getting green cards.
But now, those frustrated people are finding another way to express themselves: They’re suing the government.
Around 2005, the FBI started to see an increase in the number of mandamus lawsuits, which aim to force the government to perform a job it has failed or neglected to do.
Before 2005, the FBI said it was rarely the subject of such a suit. But in the last two years, it’s been named in 5,000 cases, many of them related to name checks.
For a while, some lawsuits appeared to be working. The government would expedite the applications and name checks before the case could be argued before a judge. But in February, USCIS changed its policy and stopped asking the FBI to expedite a name check just because someone filed a lawsuit.
Now the government is fighting back, and people such as Asad Khan (a Pakistani who took interview for citizenship in March 2006), who was contemplating legal action, are thinking twice before hiring a lawyer to fight the system.
An amendment was added to a U.S. Senate immigration reform plan that would have required the FBI to complete name checks within 180 days. But the reform package was shelved Thursday, and its future is murky…..
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/91297
CAIR Bulletin – June 14, 2007
Chicago Muslim granted citizenship after five year delay
CHICAGO, IL, June 14, 2007 The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) today announced the resolution of a citizenship delay case that has been pending for the past five years.
Despite successfully passing his citizenship exam in 2002 and taking part in repeated interviews, CAIR-Chicago's client had his naturalization delayed pending a background check.
The client was recently sworn in by the presiding Northern Illinois District Federal Court judge instead of in the usual group oath ceremony. His case was resolved before a June 15th court hearing.
"Law-abiding Muslims throughout the nation are facing unreasonable delays in being granted citizenship," said CAIR-Chicago attorney Bitta Mostofi. "CAIR-Chicago will continue to advocate for and represent individuals who have experienced these unnecessarily lengthy delays."
CAIR-Chicago launched an ongoing class action complaint again the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2005 seeking to place a cap on the amount of time allotted to conduct the background checks necessary for acquiring citizenship and to prohibit discrimination based on religion in applying for citizenship.
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