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 May 13, 2008 Tuesday

SECTION: B; Pg. 5B

LENGTH: 258 words

BODY: 

BY KEVIN GRAHAM

Times Staff Writer

TAMPA - A local immigration law firm is suing federal authorities over bureaucratic delays in citizenship applications and wants a judge to grant the lawsuit class-action status.

In the federal complaint, St. Petersburg attorney Arturo Rios Jr. called the delays, which in some cases have taken years, "unreasonable and unlawful."

Immigration officials are required by law to make a decision on citizenship within 120 days of an applicant's naturalization interview. Since 2002, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has required applicants to pass an FBI "name check."

Rios said the extra step isn't mentioned in the law, which requires a decision to be made by a set deadline. He estimates the FBI name checks have caused a delay in at least 60,000 citizenship applications nationwide.

"If there's a law that says you have to have it in 120 days, you have to abide by that," Rios said.

He said about 1,000 immigrants across Central Florida may be eligible to sign onto the Tampa lawsuit if a judge grants it class-action status. The agencies being sued include the attorney general, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, the FBI director and a director for the Citizenship and Immigration Services.

So far, two bay area women are plaintiffs in the local complaint. Elizabeth Bello-Camp is a Dominican Republic native, and Samira Suljic is a native of Bulgaria. Rios said Bello-Camp passed her interview in 2006 and has been waiting since then to become a naturalized citizen. Suljic passed hers in 2005.

LOAD-DATE: May 13, 2008