Today, the American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF), the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) are filing a national class action lawsuit against the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) over the California Service Center (CSC)'s failure to adjudicate applications for voluntary departure and employment authorization under the Family Unity program.

The Family Unity program was an outgrowth of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986. In 1990, Congress directed the INS to protect from deportation and give employment authorization to spouses and children of noncitizens who became permanent residents under the IRCA. Under the statute and implementing regulations, the INS is obligated to grant voluntary departure and employment authorization to this class of people. However, the INS, particularly CSC, has not been processing renewal or initial I-817 and I-765 applications for the Family Unity program, and some have been languishing at the service center for more than two years.

Escutia v. Reno was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The lawsuit alleges that the INS is violating 301 of the Immigration Act of 1990, as well as the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Administrative Procedures Act, by failing to timely adjudicate the applications for voluntary departure and employment authorization filed under the Family Unity program. It asks the court to compel INS to adjudicate all Family Unity applications within 90 days from filing.

The suit also alleges that, combined with the unconscionable delays, the INS wrongly interprets the 3 and 10-year bar provisions of the INA so that applicants for Family Unity status accrue time in "unlawful presence" under INA 212(a)(9)(B)(iii)(III). In fact, the INA and regulations provide that Family Unity applicants and beneficiaries are in a status "authorized by the Attorney General" so are not accruing "unlawful presence" time while they wait for the INS to process their applications.

The Escutia v. Reno complaint is available formatted as filed in PDF style, as well as in a text version. A press release is also available. For more information, contact Nadine Wettstein at AILF, nwettstein@ailf.org.