In a court decision, a federal judge condemned the former Immigration and Naturalization Service for its many violations of law.  The case, Ngwanyia v. Ashcroft, was a class action suite filed on behalf of over 150,000 asylees by the American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF).

The immigrants in the case were granted asylum in the US, but were waiting to obtain their permanent resident status.  The plaintiffs successfully argued that over the past ten years, INS and now USCIS unlawfully failed to adjust the status of 22,000 asylees due to mismanagement.  This increased the asylees wait times to become US citizens and extended the waiting list for all asylees by more than two years.

Judge Richard H. Kyle of the District Court of Minnesota ordered the federal government to adjust the status of the 22,000 waiting asylees.  The Judge also criticized INS’ procedures for asylees to obtain work permits.  Federal law requires the government to grant an asylee a work permit automatically and to keep it valid for as long as the asylee remains an asylee.  INS had illegally required the asylees to reapply for work permits each year at a cost of $120 per permit.

The court’s decision is online at http://www.ailf.org/lac/ngwanyia_021204.pdf.