ACLU, NWIRP in Court to Challenge USCIS’s Secretive and Harmful “Extreme Vetting” Program for Green-Card and Citizenship Applicants

WHAT:

The American Civil Liberties Union, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), and their partners will be in federal court on behalf of thousands of green-card and citizenship applicants who have been stuck in “immigration purgatory” due to a secretive U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy known as the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program (CARRP). We will be asking the court to end this unlawful policy, which harms people who’ve done nothing wrong and are simply seeking the safety and opportunity that our country promises.

Since 2008, the government has placed some otherwise eligible applicants — disproportionately from Muslim-majority countries — in CARRP based on vague “national security concerns,” which include things like religious practices, languages spoken, and advanced education. USCIS can spend years, and sometimes decades, searching for a reason to deny immigration applications in CARRP, even for minor paperwork errors. All the while, applicants are left in the dark. Even if “cleared” of a purported national security concern, applicants who have been subjected to CARRP are more likely to be denied benefits.

The plaintiffs in Wagafe v. Biden are represented by the ACLU, the ACLU of Southern California, the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, the Law Offices of Stacy Tolchin, and the law firm Perkins Coie.

The legal team will be available for questions after the argument. The ACLU and NWIRP’s new report on CARRP and its consequences can be found here.

WHO:

• Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
• Charlie Hogle, staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project
• Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California

WHEN:

Friday, July 19 at 10 am PT

WHERE:

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Seattle Division

700 Stewart Street, Courtroom 15106 (15A)

Seattle, WA 98101