Florida Muslims sue federal government over citizenship

TAMPA — Samir Othman, who has lived in the United States for 23 years, stood with his wife and children today in front of downtown Tampa's federal courthouse and talked of how he longs to be a U.S. citizen.

"We all love this country," the Tampa electrical engineer said. "All my children were born here."

Othman, originally from Jordan, is one of 25 Florida Muslims suing federal authorities over bureaucratic delays they say have held up their citizenship applications for up to four years.

Although they’re legal residents of the United States and have passed criminal background checks, they have been unable to become citizens, according to the class-action lawsuit filed in federal court.

They say they’re waiting for the FBI to finish doing a "name check" on them — a time-consuming review of whether their names appear in any law enforcement records, including whether they were witnesses or victims of a crime.

If their name, or a similar name, or even a fragment of their name shows up in any kind of file, it can prompt further research by the FBI, including manually searching paper records that predate 1995 and must by retrieved from one of 265 locations around the country, the lawsuit says.

Although federal law requires a decision within 120 days of their naturalization interview, some of them have been waiting for up to four years since their interviews, the lawsuit says.

"They get stuck in limbo for years and years," said attorney Mary Gundrum of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, which helped file the suit. "None of our people have committed any crimes. These individuals want nothing more than to become U.S. citizens. They have followed every law this country requires."

The plaintiffs are suing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.

- Mike Brassfield, Times staff writer