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As is its wont, Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) has published another of those short but interesting reports that it produces from time to time.
This one, "Recent Trends in Naturalization Application Lawsuits", provides statistical data relating to lawsuits filed in United States district courts from federal fiscal year (FFY) 2008 through 2014 to date (meaning the first eight months of this FFY).
TRAC notes that the lion's share of lawsuits are filed by aliens denied naturalization by the government for one statutorily articulated reason or another.
This is not surprising. Cynical immigration officers used to (and may still) say that "no case is over until the alien wins". The reason is that with enough patience, perseverance (and money for legal fees), aliens can nearly endlessly pursue their cases through a bevy of administrative and judicial proceedings. At some point, it doesn't matter that the government's decision was right or appropriate — government attorneys and officials make a cost-based decision that they no longer wish to expend limited human and capital resources on a single case when they are confronted with a flood tide of other cases demanding attention.
Of more import, though, is the government's strange unwillingness to take the necessary steps to revoke naturalization through court proceedings, criminal or civil, when confronted with overt evidence of fraud. The TRAC report tells us that "Compared to the 195 naturalization suits brought by individuals during FY 2014, there have only been five suits recorded where the federal government sued to revoke an individual's citizenship."
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