Liberties Union: Applications and Application Review

liberties union: The lawsuit claims the government since 2008 has used the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program to blacklist thousands of applications for asylum, legal permanent residency or citizenship as national security concerns, according to CTV. The program imposes criteria on the applications that go far beyond what Congress has authorized, including holding up some applications if the applicants donated to Muslim charities or travelled to Muslim-majority countries, the complaint alleges. U.S. District Judge Richard Jones in Seattle on Wednesday denied the Justice Department's request to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed in February by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. The program was not publicly discovered until 2012, when an immigration officer discussed it during testimony in a different lawsuit. Congress has laid out the requirements for these programs, Matt Adams, legal director of the Seattle-based Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, said Thursday. Immigrant rights advocates then filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to force U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to turn over more information about it, the lawsuit said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.