Would-be citizens turn to courts to speed cases

updated 5:49 p.m. ET July 5, 2007

BOISE, Idaho - For six years, Ali Al-Lati has worked with the U.S. military, teaching soldiers simple Iraqi words and commands, telling them about the cultural mores of his native land and offering advice on how to deal with the extreme weather they’ll face in Iraq.

He’s a frequent visitor at the U.S. Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La., and has passed the background checks necessary to work for a Department of Defense contractor.

But to another branch of the government, Al-Lati is still an unknown. The Iraqi refugee is one of millions waiting for the FBI to clear his name — a necessary step for U.S. citizenship.

Now, he’s turning to the federal courts for help. He’s one of dozens around the United States suing the government because the FBI has yet to complete a process called a name check.

“I came to this country because I want to live here. I work hard here. I love this country,” said Al-Lati, who’s learned English and passed the prerequisite citizenship test. He’s even passed a background check by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Both the FBI and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services acknowledge the delays are a problem. About 150,000 citizenship applications nationwide currently have a wait time longer than six months, said Maria Elena Garcia-Upson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Dallas.

“It’s unacceptable, frankly, to have to wait this long. The agency understands that,” said Upson, who said the agency is trying to find ways to expedite the process. “But you have to understand that USCIS receives millions of applications a year. One percent get hung up on additional name checks.”

'Long lines and backlogs'
The FBI completes about 62,000 name checks every week, with close to 27,000 new requests coming from USCIS alone on a weekly basis, said Trent Pedersen, a spokesman with the bureau’s Salt Lake City office.

The initial name checks are done electronically — names are entered into a database to see if the FBI has gathered any information on them in the past.

But even information on similar names yield results, or “hits,” and each hit has to be investigated so that information can be forwarded on to USCIS.

Not all the information is stored electronically — there are paper files in many of the bureau’s 265 offices nationwide — and tracking down the reason for each hit can take months, he said.

Matt Cilley / AP Ali Al-Lati, right, and Ahmed Al-Fahdi display some of the certificates of achievement they have received while working for the U.S. government.

The wait may get worse before it gets better, warns Audrey Singer, an immigration fellow with the Brookings Institute. As lawmakers grapple over the best ways to ensure a secure nation — creating stricter laws on everything from green cards to passports to citizenship applications — agencies such as the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are bound to get more bogged down, she said.

“I can see future long lines and backlogs if the government doesn’t prepare properly for these changes,” she said.

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