Settlement likely in citizenship suit

Some have waited more than five years, but several hundred Western Washington residents will likely be citizens in time to vote in November.

The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and the American Civil Liberties Union announced a preliminary settlement Tuesday in their class-action lawsuit against the federal government.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of legal permanent residents whose citizenship was delayed due to a backlog of "name checks" conducted by the FBI, said Matt Adams, a spokesman for the rights project.

The lawsuit contended the government acted unlawfully when it didn't make a decision on citizenship within 120 days of the plaintiffs' naturalization tests.

The plaintiffs have varied backgrounds, but many are from the Middle East, Adams said.

"The government is finally stepping up and saying they're going to take care of business and get these people what they deserve," Adams said.

Officials from Citizenship and Immigration Services declined to comment, saying the litigation is pending. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle didn't immediately return phone calls, but lawyers for the government have signed the preliminary settlement.

Of the 427 people represented in the suit, 79 already have become citizens; 283 will be citizens by Sept. 19; and 65 will be citizens by Oct. 18 — in time for the in-person voter-registration deadline of Oct. 20, according to a news release from the rights project.

Seattle-based electrical engineer Vafa Ghazi, 41, took his citizenship test in October 2004. He waited to receive a date for his naturalization ceremony, but it never came.

"The frustration was not knowing why I was being denied citizenship," Ghazi said.

Ghazi said his understanding was that the government was trying to determine if he was a threat.

"For me, this doesn't quite make sense," he said. "If this is the case, they need to move immediately and determine if I'm a threat, not just sit on it for four years."

Ghazi, from Iran, came to the U.S. as a student in 1991. One of the first members of the class to be cleared, he became a citizen June 12.

The government opposed class-action status for the suit, arguing that the would-be citizens wouldn't be harmed by their inability to vote.

In unusually strong language, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman disagreed: "This suggestion that plaintiffs should be resigned to participate vicariously in civic society is shocking, offensive, and wrong," she wrote in granting class-action status in April.

"The government's argument also flies in the face of the Supreme Court's repeated conclusion that the right to vote is the most basic and fundamental of our constitutionally protected rights," she wrote.

Since it is a class-action suit, a judge must review the settlement to make sure the terms are appropriate for the class.

Leslie Anne Jones: 206-464-2745 or ljones@seattletimes.com