Complaint seeks class action over citizenship delays

TAMPA -- A local immigration law firm is suing federal authorities over bureaucratic delays in citizenship applications and wants a judge to grant the lawsuit class-action status.

In the federal complaint, St. Petersburg attorney Arturo Rios Jr. called the delays, which in some cases have taken years, "unreasonable and unlawful."

Immigration officials are required by law to make a decision on citizenship within 120 days of an applicant's naturalization interview. Since 2002, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has required applicants to pass an FBI "name check."

Rios said that the extra step isn't mentioned in the law, which requires a decision to be made by a set deadline. He estimates the FBI name checks have caused a delay in at least 60,000 citizenship applications nationwide.

"If there's a law that says you have to have it in 120 days, you have to abide by that," Rios said.

He said about 1,000 immigrants across Central Florida may be eligible to sign onto the Tampa lawsuit if a judge grants it class-action status. The government agencies being sued include the U.S. Attorney General, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, the FBI director and a director for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

So far, two Tampa Bay area women are plaintiffs in the local complaint.

Elizabeth Bello-Camp is a native of the Dominican Republic and Samira Suljic is a native of Bulgaria. Rios said Bello-Camp passed her citizenship interview in 2006 and has been waiting since then to become a naturalized citizen. Suljic passed her interview process in 2005.

"The impact to these individuals is great," Rios said. "They can't vote. We have an election year where immigration is a key issue. A lot of these individuals have family members who may be impacted."

He said the delays also cause losses in Social Security benefits and potential problems being readmitted into the United States when traveling abroad.

A group of 25 Florida Muslims filed a similar lawsuit in Tampa in February. Other lawsuits have been filed in California and Illinois.

Immigration officials haven't commented on the specific lawsuits, but say it now takes an average of 16 to 18 months for a foreign-born resident with a green card to become a citizen. That estimate is from the time immigrants apply to the time they're called for an interview and exam. Federal officials say the FBI name check is part of that process.   

-Kevin Graham, Times staff writer