Hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have satisfied the requirements for U.S. citizenship are left in limbo by the U.S. government for months and even years. They pay taxes and legally work, but are unable to vote, afraid to travel, and face severe restrictions on their employment and personal lives.

The ACLU of Southern California and other groups have filed a class-action lawsuit targeting one of the main causes of citizenship backlogs: FBI "name checks" that have little national security value. A government report said the name checks "may increase the risk to national security by extending the time a potential criminal or terrorist remains in the country."

The lawsuit asks the federal government to enforce time limits meant to reduce backlogs while ensuring national security. Federal rules allow the government 180 days to give applicants a yes-or-no answer on citizenship. The four plaintiffs in the lawsuit each have waited more than 300 days.

Another plaintiff, James Moorhead, was born in England and has lived in the U.S. for 30 years. He has awards from Congress and the city and county of L.A. for foiling an armed robbery. Despite his positive record, he has been waiting more than a year since his immigration interview was abruptly canceled last year.

Photo: James Moorhead, a native of Great Britain, won awards for bravery after foiling an armed robbery, but he's waited more than a year for a response to his citizenship application.

Legal: Read the ACLU's filing in Medina v. County of San Bernardino

LOS ANGELES - A 29-year-old Muslim woman who was forced by deputies to remove her religious head covering while she was in custody in San Bernardino County's West Valley Detention Center filed a lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court asserting that her First Amendment religious freedom rights were violated by San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies.

Jameelah Medina, of Rialto, was arrested at the Pomona station of Metrolink's commuter rail system on Dec. 7, 2005, for having an invalid train pass. She was taken to the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga for processing.

Ms. Medina, who was born in the United States and raised in a Muslim family, wears a headscarf known as a hijab to cover her hair, ears, neck and part of her chest. Many Muslim women, like Ms. Medina, believe that they should be covered at all times in the presence of men who are not members of their immediate family.

Despite her repeated requests to keep her head covered during her day-long incarceration, she was forced to remove her hijab in the presence of men she did not know and to remain uncovered for much of the day.

'I tried to tell the officer not to make me remove it because it is part of my religion,' said Ms. Medina. 'Even after the officer had searched me and found nothing, she would not give me back my scarf. I felt humiliated, exposed.'

Ms. Medina was never prosecuted in connection with this arrest.

The lawsuit was filed by the ACLU of Southern California, the national ACLU Women's Rights Project and the national ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.

'In this country, we have the right to practice our religion even when we are in jail or prison,' said Ariela Migdal, staff attorney for the Women's Rights Project. 'San Bernardino County didn't give Jameelah Medina any reason for forcing her to remove her headscarf, and there is no good reason.'

Hector Villagra, director of the Orange County office of the ACLU of Southern California, who filed a similar case three months ago in the city of Orange, said other law enforcement agencies have procedures that allow Muslim women to wear the hijab.

'Other correctional systems, including the federal prisons, allow women to wear headscarves when they are in jail or prison, and San Bernardino County violated Jameelah Medina's rights when they didn't allow her to do so. If other jurisdictions can do it, so too can San Bernardino.'

The attorneys on the case are Ariela Migdal and Lenora Lapidus from the national ACLU Women's Rights Project, Hector Villagra and Ranjana Natarajan of the ACLU of Southern California, and Daniel Mach of the national ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.

The ACLU is representing a Muslim woman forced to bare her head by San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies in violation of her religious beliefs.

Some Muslim women choose to wear the hijab as a reflection of their faith. The U.S. Constitution protects individual religious expression, whether in schools, jails or other government buildings.

Jameelah Medina was arrested for having an invalid commuter-rail pass and briefly held. She was not prosecuted.

Despite her repeated requests to keep her head covered, she was forced to remove her hijab.

"Even after the officer had searched me and found nothing, she would not give me back my scarf," said Ms. Medina, who was born in the United States. "I felt humiliated and exposed."

The lawsuit was filed by the ACLU of Southern California, the national ACLU Women's Rights Project and the national ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.

Photo: Jameelah Medina spoke to the media about her experience