Immigrants in citizenship limbo

The average immigrant in Seattle can become a U.S. citizen within six months of applying.

Abdinasir Ali Nur has been waiting three years.

The Somali shopkeeper is caught in a backlog of a small number of people, most from Arab and Muslim countries, who have passed the naturalization test but have yet to be invited to become citizens.

In most cases, their names are similar enough to those on a U.S. watch list to hit a trigger during a security check.

The resulting delays, as the FBI follows up, come even as the Department of Homeland Security reports huge strides in reducing overall delays for processing immigration-related documents.

At a forum at Seattle's Town Hall tomorrow, Nur and several other immigrants will tell U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., that there needs to be a clearer path to citizenship for those who follow the rules.

Their testimony will speak to four key recommendations they say are necessary to reform the immigration system:

Immigration forum


Where: Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., Seattle.

When: Tomorrow, with registration at 8 a.m., testimony from 9 to 11:30 a.m., and workshops from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Cost: Free

• Streamline the path to citizenship so it is easier for undocumented immigrants to gain legal status.

• Reduce the time it takes for the relatives of immigrants to join them here.

• Establish labor protections so that immigrants are not exploited on the job.

• Re-establish the civil liberties they say were compromised following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Retired Army Capt. James Yee, the Muslim chaplain who was accused of espionage before his name was eventually cleared, is also expected to testify.

Nur, who has a family here, said his uncertain status has "greatly affected my life."

"I am still not a U.S. citizen, and this affects my ability to travel."

For many immigrants, the U.S. passport that citizenship affords smooths overseas travel, including back to their home countries.

"My parents in Somalia are old, and I want to be able to see them, but I feel stuck because of my immigration situation," Nur said.

Immigration has emerged as a contentious political and social issue in this country.

Indeed, many of the points Nur and the other immigrants will raise with Murray are addressed in immigration-reform legislation introduced last month by Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and John McCain, R.-Ariz.

"The immigration system is broken and it needs to be fixed," said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of Hate Free Zone Washington, an advocacy group for immigrants and a sponsor of the event.

"We need to look comprehensively at why immigration is not working in this country and why we have immigrants whose rights are consistently violated. Targeting immigrants and tagging them as terrorists does not live up to the fundamentals of America," she said.

Nur traces his troubles to the days following Sept. 11.

In November 2001, the inventory of his Rainier Valley grocery store, Maka Mini Market, was seized by federal agents when they raided a money-wiring business next door, alleging it was part of an international network that diverted money to al-Qaida.

Never charged with any wrongdoing, Nur was allowed to reopen his market a month later. The Treasury Department eventually compensated him for some of his losses.

But shortly after that, the U.S. Department of Agriculture accused him of trafficking in food stamps and suspended his ability to accept them. After five months, it reversed its decision.

Nur said he applied for citizenship because he wanted to become "a full member of this society."

Typically, immigrants who have lived in the U.S. as permanent legal residents for five years can apply for naturalization.

Before Sept. 11, immigration officials required fingerprint checks in gathering background on these individuals.

But following the attacks, name checks were added to ensure against granting immigration documents to anyone listed in the government's security database as posing a threat to the U.S.

Immigration officials say 95 percent of applications are cleared within a month, with only 1 percent taking more than six months.

The longer delays affect people with common and similar-sounding names from many countries, officials say.

But advocates with Hate Free Zone said that in the Seattle area, Muslims from areas such as Somalia appear to be the most commonly affected.

"People from all ethnicities have their cases delayed because of the name check; it's not just any one group," said Sharon Rummery, spokeswoman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of Homeland Security.

"We sympathize with them, but we have no control over those."

The FBI does, she said, and "we're not allowed to grant benefits to people until those are complete."

So Nur is still waiting, three years after he passed an English-language and civics test. Typically, swearing-in is scheduled within days of passing the test.

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com