U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

A class action lawsuit has been certified against the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on behalf of up to 1,000 people who were wrongly denied citizenship in Seattle. The suit claims that from 1998 to 2004, the Seattle office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services misapplied the "good moral character" standard for naturalization. Immigration officials there concede that they routinely denied citizenship if people had minor infractions on their record. (Feb-02-05)