Immigration agency told to pick up its pace

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Source: SF Chronicle

(10-18) 15:56 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Four years after Bosnian immigrant Mirsad Hajro applied for U.S. citizenship in 2003, the government turned him down based on evidence it repeatedly refused to divulge, despite a law that requires a prompt response to requests for information.

Now, a lawyer for the Richmond electrical engineer says he's learned that the evidence doesn't exist, a disclosure he plans to use in Hajro's upcoming trial for citizenship. Meanwhile, the leisurely way the immigration agency processes requests to see its records has caught the attention of a federal magistrate, who plans to order a nationwide speedup.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has shown a "pattern and practice of violations" of a law that requires it to respond to immigrants' information requests within 20 days, U.S. Magistrate Paul Grewal of San Jose said in a ruling last Thursday.

Grewal said 27 immigration lawyers submitted declarations saying the agency routinely takes months to disclose records in their cases. Hajro said he received his first response four months after he requested it followed by several others in the next nine months. None of the responses documented the reasons he was denied citizenship.

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