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denver & the west
Quest to be citizen slows
Muslim immigrants often wait years for a background check to become Americans. But officials say they re not being singled out.
By Bruce Finley
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com
Article Last Updated:12/10/2006 09:37:01 AM MST
Zuhair Mahd of Denver made all the right moves to become a U.S. citizen after escaping poverty and rejection as a blind Palestinian-refugee teenager in Jordan.
He found a banker to buy him a ticket to Boston. He excelled in U.S. schools. He pioneered Arabic text-to-speech software and worked for IBM, honing skills that recruiters for the CIA and other agencies covet for the war on terrorism.
Then he applied for citizenship, passed the tests and waited for an FBI background check.
And waited. And waited.
After waiting for two years, Mahd, 33, sued the FBI.
Now his case is pending in federal court along with hundreds of other lawsuits nationwide by Muslims who made the grade to become citizens but have been delayed while waiting for FBI checks for up to five years.
Applicants for U.S. citizenship come from many nations and cultures, but most of the lawsuits filed recently in Colorado involve Muslim immigrants.
Federal law says immigrants who pass citizenship tests must be granted citizenship in 120 days.
The lawsuits are getting results. An internal government memo indicates suing can accelerate FBI action.
Yet the core problem is getting worse: a mounting FBI backlog of unfinished background checks as the nation seeks greater protection against terrorism. Today's backlog tops 440,000.
FBI officials won't say how many of those waiting for background checks are Muslims but insist that the agency is not targeting any particular group.
"There is a backlog," Special Agent Jeff Lanza said at FBI headquarters in Washington. "We're not using 'backlog' as a euphemism for discriminating against Muslims."
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the government began requiring FBI background checks on all immigrants poised to become citizens, increasing the FBI's workload to about 4 million checks a year. The checks are seen as essential to weed out terrorists.
Now these very delays are raising security concerns. People whose names trigger computer "hits" against federal databases remain in the country for years.
"If there are concerns about these people, why are we just letting them sit here?" said Crystal Williams, deputy director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, a pro-immigration group in Washington.
"This system isn't working ... and nobody's taking responsibility," Williams said.
The delays also foster ill will - just as the U.S. government launches a new campaign to persuade more eligible immigrants to apply for citizenship. Record numbers choose not to apply.
"This is injurious in so many ways. You're sitting here, singled out, hanging, with no indication why it's taking so long," Jordanian immigrant Mahd said last week during a defense industry job fair in Colorado Springs.
There, a recruiter who initially was eager to hire him balked when he learned Mahd still lacked the citizenship required for security clearances.
FBI agents twice visited him at home in Denver, he said, asking if he'd be willing to work as an informant or monitor online chat rooms for anything suspicious.
"I told them I'm not willing to fill in the blanks when I don't know the full story," he said.
"Why the delay? What did I do?"
Hundreds of lawsuits against the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are pending in federal courts nationwide, including class-action cases in California, Illinois and New York, according to judicial records and attorneys.
The lawsuits ask judges to order completion of background checks - or waive the checks - so that citizenship is granted within 120 days as required.
In Colorado, 31 of the lawsuits have been filed this year. At least 10 cases recently were settled, with the FBI agreeing to expedite checks, presumably encouraging more lawsuits. At least 21 cases by 26 plaintiffs are pending, and federal attorneys report a couple of new lawsuits filed every week.
Colorado Muslim leaders warn that citizenship delays feed a deepening discontent.
"If you want people to be good citizens, you have to make them feel welcome, not discriminated against," said Colorado Muslim Society Imam Ammar Amonette at Denver's Abu Bakr mosque.
Some of those delayed for citizenship have served the U.S. military as translators in Iraq.
Training Iraq-bound U.S. soldiers at Fort Carson, Iraqi refugee Sattar Khdir, 52, a father of two who needs citizenship to join the soldiers in battle, said he feels "ashamed. I'm sitting, eating with the TV, seeing U.S. troops getting killed helping my people."
Khdir begged FBI and immigration officials repeatedly for a year to finish his case - "Why don't you let me go?" - before hiring an attorney this fall.
"This is extremely unfair," said Denver lawyer Jihad Muhaisen, whose firm has filed more than 15 lawsuits. Government lawyers swiftly arranged expedited checks in each case settled so far, Muhaisen said.
Meanwhile, citizenship applications for non-Arab clients "go through" without delay, he said. "If (Muslims) qualified for citizenship, they should get citizenship."
A Department of Homeland Security memo reveals that the FBI now considers a "lawsuit pending in Federal Court" as grounds for speeding up stalled background checks.
FBI agents say they're working as fast as they can. Lawsuits won't intimidate anyone into doing sloppy work, said FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard Powers in Denver. "We're going to do it right, because in some cases to make an error could be grievous. ... Certainly, security is an issue," Powers said.
Suing the government "is an unfortunate way to try to resolve what is a system that generally works at a very high capacity," he said.
Frustrations in Denver reached the point last week that Muslim community leaders, with Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman acting as a bridge, visited FBI offices. Powers met with the delegation, explaining how checks are done.
Computers at FBI headquarters cross-check names against multiple databases. Some 62,000 names a week are sent electronically for background checks. Nearly half are immigrants who have qualified for citizenship; 85 percent of the checks are completed within three days.
The problem: Names that trigger computer hits require agents to ferret out data that may span the globe.
Demand to do more checks is growing. In 2001, the FBI faced requests to conduct 2.8 million name checks. Last year, the requests topped 3.3 million.
Federal officials say the backlog is growing as well.
Homeland Security officials recently began refusing to schedule citizenship interviews and tests for anyone until FBI checks are complete - an effort to reduce the government's legal exposure.
Meanwhile, the government is struggling to reverse what Congress and others have identified as a worrying trend: More than 7 million immigrants eligible for citizenship haven't applied.
The government just launched a $6.5 million "Americanization" campaign to encourage more eligible immigrants to become citizens, said Alfonso Aguilar, Homeland Security's chief of citizenship.
"Until now, we've kind of taken assimilation for granted. The truth is, we've come to the point that Congress and the administration realize we need to strengthen our assimilation efforts. If we don't, we could have a problem" with lack of unity in the future, Aguilar said.
"You cannot preserve a stable democracy if your people aren't united by common values."
Meanwhile, government lawyers say they increasingly are diverted from fighting crime to defending the FBI.
U.S. Attorney for Colorado Troy Eid estimated that for the amount of time his staff has devoted this year to defending the FBI, it could be "putting 50 or more bad guys behind bars."
"This problem appears to be getting worse, not better. ... One obvious solution that could be considered would be to increase the resources available to the FBI" for checks, he said. "These background checks need to be done. How they get them done on time is a public-policy issue that needs to be addressed."
Staff writer Bruce Finley can be reached at 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com.
To become a U.S. citizen, you must:
Live as a legal resident in the country for five years (three if married to a U.S. citizen) with no absence of more than one year and at least 30 months of total presence, including three months in one state or district.
Be at least 18 and of good moral character, meaning not a criminal or habitual drunkard or person who has refused to support dependents or lied under oath.
Pass English-language and civics tests and an interview with a federal adjudicator.
Swear to support the Constitution and obey laws, renounce any foreign allegiance, and bear arms or perform other government services when required by law.
Give fingerprints for submission to the FBI.
Receive FBI clearance after a background check is completed.
Average wait time for all applicants: eight months after filing application.
Average number of immigrants who become citizens each year: 5,700 in Colorado; 604,000 nationwide.
Number of applications rejected a year: 108,000.
Source: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security
Pressuring the FBI
Civil-liberties advocates are demanding that the FBI set and meet deadlines for background checks on immigrants poised to become U.S. citizens.
Otherwise, the post-9/11 system of having the FBI check names of all applicants "means they can just keep people waiting for years and years," American Civil Liberties Union attorney Ranjana Nataranjan said.
"The question is: Are there legitimate reasons to delay so many people? We think the answer is no. Somebody isn't connecting the dots here. And, if there are real security issues, we don't want the FBI to sit on those."
A growing FBI backlog of unfinished checks, and a new immigration policy of refusing to schedule citizenship tests until FBI checks are done, is causing havoc and feeding discontent. Hundreds of mostly Muslim immigrants who have been delayed for up to five years allege unfair treatment.
"When a group is singled out, that's contrary to our principles," said Lema Bashir, legal adviser for the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Delayed immigrants also seek help from members of Congress, including Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo.
"Prompt and thorough background checks are essential for our nation's security," Salazar said Friday. "But we must also guarantee no one is being denied for the wrong reasons."