Citizenship applications stalled, lawsuits say
Omar Mousa Jaafar became a U.S. citizen this month in a process that his attorney said was needlessly delayed more than two years by a policy that targets immigrants from Muslim-majority countries.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) is delaying FBI background checks of applicants, especially from Muslim-majority
countries, said Romin Iqbal, legal director for the CouncilonAmericanRelations-Ohio.
Iqbal blamed a little-known policy called the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program. Enacted in 2008, CARRP was meant to give extra scrutiny to immigrants and noncitizens from Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and south Asian communities, he said.
However, critics think it is catching too many harmless applicants. The program has been the target of legal actions across the country.
CAIR-Ohio has resolved 14 immigration-delay complaints in favor of clients in federal courts, Iqbal said. Another five are pending.
“We believe this is contributing to indefinitely delaying applications while they look for any reason to deny, even for minor issues that typically would not result in a denial,” Iqbal said. “However, when lives are put on hold and families kept separated, we are left with no choice but to continue filing these lawsuits until CIS stops this practice of unreasonable and unexplained delays.”
Email requests for a response from Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this week by The Dispatch have not been answered.
But the agency’s website states that “CARRP is an internal (CIS) process that a case can go through to ensure that immigration benefits or services are not granted to individuals who pose a threat to national security and/or public safety, or who seek to defraud our immigration system.”
Jaafar’s complaint said he is “of good moral character, has no criminal record and meets all the requirements for citizenship.” A former employee of the Iraqi government, he had been a permanent U.S. resident since Oct. 27, 1998.
On April 24, 2015, he applied for naturalization. The following month he reported to the CIS office in Columbus to have his
It took Omar Mousa Jaafar more than 2 years to be approved for citizenship.
fingerprints taken for the background check.
Over the next two years, he contacted the agency six times inquiring about an interview. Each time the answer was: “We are unable to move forward with your application until the required background checks have been completed. At this time, we are unable to determine when the adjudication of your case will (be) completed and no further action is required from you.”
Twice during the two years, U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers’ office checked on the status of Jaafar’s petition. The Upper Arlington Republican was told it remained under administrative review.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the directors of the CIS, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees USCIS, and the FBI are named as defendants in the complaints.
Two months after Iqbal sued for Jaafar on Aug. 23, 2017, USCIS scheduled an interview for him.
He became an American a month later, along with about 50 others who took the oath at the U.S. Courthouse in Columbus.