Would-be citizens turn to courts to speed cases

Questions with few answers
Lawsuits are becoming more common, and would-be citizens in several states including Utah, California, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Idaho have sued in the hope of speeding up the process.

Al-Lati filed his lawsuit in May, after waiting nearly five years for his name check to be completed. Both Al-Lati and his attorney maintain Al-Lati has a clean record. He keeps a handful of certificates of commendation from various military groups thanking him for his service as proof.

“We don’t know why it’s taking so long,” Al-Lati said. “I asked, ’Did I do something wrong to make you hold my case?’ They say no. I get depressed every time I am thinking about it.”

Al-Lati frequently stops by the local USCIS office to check on his application status. He hopes that once he becomes a citizen, he can find work on a U.S. military base in Iraq, interpreting for the government and serving his new country.

In Iraq, Al-Lati said he risked execution when, at the age of 18, he refused to join Saddam Hussein’s army and invade Kuwait. Within months he was captured by the Republican Guard and shot in the leg during his arrest, he said. But the judge in his case was lenient, sentencing him to ten years in prison instead of death.

Six months after his incarceration, the first Gulf War began and coalition forces began bombing the military base that contained Al-Lati’s prison.

In the chaos, a guard took pity on the prisoners, unlocking the prison doors and telling them to run. After taking part in an unsuccessful uprising against Hussein, Al-Lati ended up in an American refugee camp where he lived for six years before coming to the United States, beginning his odyssey with American bureaucracy.

“I’ve waited until now, when I am 35 years old,” Al-Lati said. “Am I going to have to wait for citizenship when I am 60 years old? I went to the courts because this is the only way to do it.”

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