An increasing number of immigrants are suing the federal government over delays in processing their citizenship applications.

At the U.S. District Court in Alexandria alone, roughly 100 lawsuits have been filed in 2007 demanding action on stalled applications. That represents roughly 8 percent of the entire civil docket at the courthouse.

Morris Days is an attorney with the Maryland-Virginia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations who helps people with the lawsuits. He says Muslims are particularly vulnerable to delays because the names of innocent immigrants get confused with people on terror watch lists.

Days says the lawsuits have been very effective in getting the government to speed up the process.