Authorities under fire from immigration activists and legislators for dragging out the immigration process are responding to class action lawsuits filed by Muslim immigrants in several states claiming discrimination. They say they are redoubling efforts to clear old cases by November.What forced the change was dozens of class action lawsuits filed nationwide. Without them, federal agencies would not have devoted more resources to clear the backlog, said Christina Abraham, civil rights coordinator for the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim civil rights advocacy group.
Since 2005, the group has documented about 380 cases of citizenship delays in the Chicago-area Muslim community, and filed dozens of lawsuits on behalf of suburban Muslims facing "unreasonable" delays in being naturalized.
A class-action lawsuit filed by the group in May 2006 was just recently resolved with all the plaintiffs being naturalized.
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