Philadelphia residents Abdel Wahab Alaussos and Maria Campbell Davis led the lawsuit earlier this summer. “Alaussos was approved for naturalization in March but was never scheduled for an oath ceremony,” Philadelphia Inquirer said, while Campbell Davis was set to take hers that month but then saw it canceled due to the pandemic with no rescheduled date in sight.
“Plaintiffs do not challenge the necessity of cancelling and postponing the oath ceremonies to safeguard against unwarranted exposure to COVID-19,” advocacy groups suing on behalf of the immigrants said at the time. “However, they request that the court utilize an existing law enacted by Congress to address unique circumstances, such as a pandemic, by providing either judicial oath ceremonies or immediate administrative naturalization by USCIS.”
USCIS had steadily refused to conduct virtual ceremonies even as a former agency official said there’s nothing stopping the administration from going the Zoom route. “To be clear, the law is not as stringent as USCIS suggests and there is legal room for USCIS to make appropriate accommodations for remote oath ceremonies,” Ur Jaddou, director of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Watch and former USCIS chief counsel, said in a statement received by Daily Kos. “But it takes will and interest to do so.”
That will apparently had to be a lawsuit. “Those potential 2,202 new voters might not seem like a lot,” Philadelphia Inquirer continued. “But their addition comes mere months before the November presidential election, in which a purple Pennsylvania is likely to again play a crucial role. Donald Trump won the state by less than a percentage point in 2016.”
“Our clients are ecstatic that they no longer have to worry whether they will be left in limbo because of the pandemic,” Northwest Immigrant Rights Project legal director Matt Adams said according to Philadelphia Inquirer. “We appreciate that USCIS and the District Court immediately took action to ensure that over 2,200 people were able to complete the process of becoming U.S. citizens.”