News Americas, WASHINGTON, D.C., Fri. July 17, 2020: A Caribbean immigrant in Philadelphia is suing the Trump administration.
Maria Campbell Davis, who was born in Jamaica, along with Syrian national Abdel Wahab Alaussos, are suing to become citizens of the United States and gain the right to vote in the November 2020 elections, according to Inquirer.com’s Jeff Gammage.
The two are asking the U.S. District Court in Eastern Pennsylvania to order the government to quickly administer the oath to everyone in their position, while there’s still time to register to vote in their state.
“In a country where only 60% of eligible voters go to the polls and where the president actively sows doubt about the integrity of the election system, the right to cast a ballot means everything to them — a fundamental privilege of U.S. citizenship,” they state in the suit filed by four attorneys including two from National Immigration Litigation Alliance.
Campbell Davis was interviewed for naturalization in January and was set to take the oath on March 19, 2020. But the ceremony was canceled and not rescheduled, the suit said. That means she’s unable to petition for her Jamaican sons to immigrate to the U.S. or vote in November.
“A much larger, expedited effort is needed to accommodate the hundreds of plaintiffs [whose] paths to U.S. citizenship have been delayed,” the lawsuit stated, “to ensure that they are not needlessly harmed by any additional delays.”
Campbell Davis is a lawful permanent resident as is Alaussos. They both filed the class-action lawsuit against USCIS and other federal agencies and officials, saying that while the initial delay was understandable, it now has gone on too long.
They want USCIS to use all available means and technologies — from virtual, online interactions to live, drive-up appearances — to conduct naturalizations by Sept. 28, 2020 in the COVID-19 era, three weeks before Oct. 19th, the last day on which Pennsylvanians can register to vote in the November election.
The lawsuit comes as immigrant voters are poised to exert new impact on a purple Pennsylvania that Donald Trump won by less than a percentage point in 2016.
USCIS declined to comment on the suit.
