Judicial Watch Sues for Records on Obama Citizenship Push

Judicial Watch has sued the Obama administration for documents related to its recent campaign urging permanent residents to become naturalized U.S. citizens, the conservative government accountability group announced Thursday.

The organization initially filed a Freedom of Information Act request with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in May seeking the information USCIS sent to green card holders encouraging them to naturalize in advance of the 2016 election. According to Judicial Watch, since USCIS failed to comply in a timely fashion to the request, the group filed suit.

“Judicial Watch is looking to uncover the Obama administration’s political prioritization of our immigration system in order to receive votes,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement Thursday.

“This shouldn’t come as a surprise to most Americans but the blatant manipulation of our immigration system – at the expense of others – for political gain needs to be exposed for everyone to see,” he added.

Judicial Watch charges that, in conjunction with the Obama administration’s plan to help permanent residents become U.S. citizens, USCIS has shifted resources from it’s “Electronic Immigration System to dispatch letters focused on naturalization prior to the election.

“USCIS would normally conduct a criminal and security background investigation of an immigration applicant upon his or her filing for naturalization,” the group charged in a release. “This process reportedly has been expedited, reminiscent of Clinton-era “Citizenship USA” program and “lean and light.”