Immigrants’ Status Focus of Lawsuit

Thousands of legal permanent residents in the U.S. have lost their jobs, ability to work or freedom to travel because the Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department have wrongly denied them written proof of their immigration status, according to a lawsuit filed in San Francisco.

The class-action suit, filed late Tuesday, contends the federal government’s practices have needlessly left legal immigrants from throughout the world -- some of them in the U.S. for as long as 20 years -- without green cards or other temporary documentation for 18 months or more. That temporary documentation, immigrants’ lawyers say, was once routinely granted within a month and was sometimes available in as little as a day.

“It’s a terrible problem,” said Palo Alto attorney Michelle S. Rhyu. “Despite the fact that immigration judges have granted lawful permanent resident status to these people, the government is taking months and, in many cases, over a year to issue the documents that distinguish these lawful residents from undocumented aliens.”

Federal officials had no comment Wednesday on the lawsuit, which names 10 plaintiffs from a half-dozen cities in California, New York, Illinois, Wisconsin and Florida.

Under immigration laws, foreigners who are suspected of being in the country illegally are entitled to a deportation proceeding where they can make their case to remain in the U.S.

During that process, applicants undergo a background check, their fingerprints are analyzed by the FBI and their case is assigned to a representative of the Department of Homeland Security. Ultimately, the foreigner is sent to an immigration judge who either approves the deportation or grants the individual status as a lawful permanent resident.

Unless a ruling is appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals, the judge’s decision is usually final within 30 days. If Homeland Security waives its right to appeal, the judge’s ruling is effective immediately.

The lawsuit, however, says that process has been upended by the “failure” of federal officials to issue temporary documentation that would serve as proof that an immigrant has been granted lawful permanent residence status by a judge.

Though the lawsuit does not indicate how long the problem has existed, attorneys involved in the case say the delays began after the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002.

A similar lawsuit is making its way through federal court in Texas. In that case, the government has cited the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as a reason for delaying the immigration documentation, according to David R. Armendariz of the Texas Lawyers’ Committee, which is co-counsel in the new lawsuit.

“The government has said it needs to do more security checks,” he said.

The result, immigration attorneys say, has been devastating to thousands of legal immigrants in the U.S.

In Merced, plaintiff Flora Rodriguez Santillan, a 20-year resident of the U.S., is hoping she will not lose her second job in a year because she still has not received proof from the government that she is a lawful permanent resident, according to the lawsuit.

In May, almost five years after the government moved to deport her to Mexico, Rodriguez was granted legal permanent resident status by an immigration judge after proving that she had for years been abused by her father. But months later, she was fired from a job she had held for five years because she could not prove she was authorized to work.