For Immediate Release
June 11th, 2020
Media Contacts
Matt Adams, Legal Director, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
206-957-8611, matt@nwirp.org
Trina Realmuto, Executive Director, National Immigration Litigation
Alliance
(617) 819-4447; trina@immigrationlitigation.org
Philadelphia, PA – Applicants for U.S. citizenship who could not take
the oath of allegiance to complete the last step of the citizenship
process for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic filed a lawsuit in the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania yesterday. The suit asks the federal
court to provide them with the ability to immediately take the oath. The
lawsuit was filed on behalf of Plaintiffs and a proposed class covering
hundreds of individuals in the region. Similar delays have occurred
throughout the country creating a backlog of thousands who remain
waiting to be sworn in as U.S. citizens. The lawsuit was filed by the
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), National Immigration
Litigation Alliance (NILA), the Law Offices of Stacy Tolchin, and
Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing, Feinberg & Lin LLP.
Plaintiffs are lawful permanent residents whose applications for
naturalization have been approved by the Philadelphia Field Office of
U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization Services (USCIS) and who either had
their oath ceremony cancelled or not scheduled due to the outbreak of
COVID-19. Plaintiffs do not challenge the necessity of cancelling and
postponing the oath ceremonies to safeguard against unwarranted exposure
to COVID-19. However, they request that the court utilize an existing
law enacted by Congress to address unique circumstances, such as a
pandemic, by providing either judicial oath ceremonies or immediate
administrative naturalization by USCIS. The statute at issue provides
for an expedited process in cases involving special circumstances.
Plaintiffs ask the Court to provide an expedited process to all class
members so that they will be sworn in as U.S. citizens by late
September, to ensure that they have time to register to vote in the fall
elections.
“There has been so much negative fallout from the pandemic, including
delaying the rights of citizenship to hundreds of lawful permanent
residents in the Philadelphia area, every one of whom has already had
their application approved, but now have been unable to complete the
oath—the last step of the citizenship process,” said Matt Adams, Legal
Director for NWIRP. “Fortunately, Congress provided a tool for rare
situations like this to allow the federal court to provide expedited
oath ceremonies or to instruct USCIS to provide immediate administrative
naturalizations.”
“U.S. citizenship confers fundamental rights, including the rights to
vote, to petition for family members to immigrate, and to access certain
public programs and benefits,” said Trina Realmuto, Executive Director
of NILA. “This lawsuit asks the Court to order USCIS to prioritize
conducting oath ceremonies, which had been stalled since mid-March, so
that Plaintiffs and proposed class members are not unduly and
indefinitely denied these important rights.”
The complaint can be viewed here.