Some of those who applied for the citizenship (naturalization) faced the clog of security check delays, in some cases even for years. There was enough blame to go around between the DHS and the FBI as to who was responsible for the backlog. As the USCIS acknowledged, the USCIS somehow accelerated the processing of some security-clogged cases when the applicants brought a mandamus action before the federal courts asking the federal court to mandate the USCIS to process the applications. It more or less opened a flood gate of mandamus actions by the involved applicants causing a tremendous burden on the agency and the U.S. Attorneys in terms of the resources and time.
The news have recently surfaced that the U.S. Attorneys would fight out rather than back down or settle in such lawsuits. It is a bad news for those who suffer from terrible delays in naturalization because of the so-called security check backlog. In the first place, it will become very expensive to litigate. Additionally, the outcome of success in such litigation may not necessarily lead to the quick fix any more of the naturalization delays.