Judge orders permanent resident status for 22,000 asylum holders
Steve Karnowski, Associated Press
Published February 13, 2004
A federal judge in St. Paul ordered the government Thursday to grant permanent resident status to nearly 22,000 people nationwide who have been granted asylum in this country but have been forced to wait because of bureaucratic delays.
U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle also ordered the government to give all asylum holders proper documents showing they are eligible to work.
He said the government had botched its legal obligation to do that, saying its violations were "so widespread, so egregious, and so plainly harmful to asylees as a class as to constitute nothing short of a national embarrassment."
His order came in a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of more than 150,000 asylum holders by the American Immigration Law Foundation of Washington, D.C.
"We think it's a very strong opinion and should send a message to the government," said Nadine Wettstein, director of the foundation's Legal Action Center.
Kyle's decision means that nearly 22,000 people who are at the top of the waiting list should get green cards soon, and that a shorter wait for the approximately 130,000 applicants who will remain on the list, Wettstein said.
Under federal law, the government can give permanent resident status to 10,000 refugees per fiscal year. But from 1994 to 2002, the government failed for various reasons to use all the allotted slots, leaving nearly 22,000 applicants stuck on the waiting list. The government claimed that the unused slots expired at the end of each fiscal year.
Kyle disagreed, saying the government is legally obligated to fill those slots.
A Justice Department spokesman in Washington, Charles Miller, said the agency hadn't seen Kyle's decision and would have to review it before deciding its next move
Steve Karnowski, Associated Press
Published February 13, 2004
A federal judge in St. Paul ordered the government Thursday to grant permanent resident status to nearly 22,000 people nationwide who have been granted asylum in this country but have been forced to wait because of bureaucratic delays.
U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle also ordered the government to give all asylum holders proper documents showing they are eligible to work.
He said the government had botched its legal obligation to do that, saying its violations were "so widespread, so egregious, and so plainly harmful to asylees as a class as to constitute nothing short of a national embarrassment."
His order came in a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of more than 150,000 asylum holders by the American Immigration Law Foundation of Washington, D.C.
"We think it's a very strong opinion and should send a message to the government," said Nadine Wettstein, director of the foundation's Legal Action Center.
Kyle's decision means that nearly 22,000 people who are at the top of the waiting list should get green cards soon, and that a shorter wait for the approximately 130,000 applicants who will remain on the list, Wettstein said.
Under federal law, the government can give permanent resident status to 10,000 refugees per fiscal year. But from 1994 to 2002, the government failed for various reasons to use all the allotted slots, leaving nearly 22,000 applicants stuck on the waiting list. The government claimed that the unused slots expired at the end of each fiscal year.
Kyle disagreed, saying the government is legally obligated to fill those slots.
A Justice Department spokesman in Washington, Charles Miller, said the agency hadn't seen Kyle's decision and would have to review it before deciding its next move
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