The Sunday Goshit Citizenship Lawsuit Is the Story of a Man Who Did Everything Right — and Had the Final Door Slammed in His Face

About fifty people gathered in the Iowa City Pedestrian Mall, a well-known area of brick pavement and benches in the center of a college town that most Iowans are familiar with, on a Friday morning in early April 2026. A few had signs. One read was “USA Home of Immigrants Not Kings.” “We Stand with Sunday,” remarked another. His name was yelled by others. Standing in front of them was the man at the center of it all, a professor from Nigeria who came to Cedar Rapids in August 2000 on a student visa and never quite made it out. He called the final few months of his life “a secondary exile.”

In addition to serving as an adjunct professor in the Department of International Studies at the University of Iowa, Dr. Sunday Goshit has served as president of the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council, co-founder of the African Festival of Arts and Culture, and president of Iowa City Compassion, a faith-based nonprofit organization that offers legal assistance to immigrants and refugees in the area. He was a member of the education advisory board for the Iowa City Community School District. In a community that, by all accounts, views him as an integral part of its fabric, he has spent 25 years teaching, organizing, advocating, and building. He and his spouse Regina obtained legal permanent residency in June 2020. They applied for citizenship last spring. Sunday passed his interview for naturalization in October 2025. The date of their oath ceremony was set for January 16, 2026.

Important Information: Sunday Goshit Citizenship Lawsuit

A letter arrived less than a month prior to the ceremony. According to the government, the oath was being canceled because of “unforeseen circumstances.” No more justification. There is no deadline for rescheduling. There was no sign of what had changed, if anything. The Goshits were left exactly where they are now—approved but unfinished, cleared but unconfirmed, and American in every significant sense save the legal one—by the letter’s few bland sentences.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is named as the defendant in the lawsuit, which was filed on April 3 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. The lawsuit contests what Goshit’s legal team claims is an illegal and arbitrary halt to his naturalization process. Together with UI law students Laurel Jenks and Tiffany Brinkman, Kate Melloy Goettel, director of the Federal Impact Litigation Clinic at the University of Iowa College of Law, is handling the case—a detail that has its own subtle significance. Through its law school, the same university where Goshit teaches is now supporting him in his quest for the citizenship he has earned.

The larger backdrop is a presidential proclamation issued in December 2025 that directed immigration officers to keep processing applications from citizens of 39 nations, including Nigeria, but to postpone making final decisions on them indefinitely. The proclamation has an impact on thousands of immigrants who have endured years of paperwork, fees, interviews, and waiting before being halted at the final stage by an administrative hold with no explanation or end date. Because of his reputation in his community, Goshit’s case is among the most well-known, but it is by no means exceptional. The press conference was organized by the Immigrant Welcome Network of Johnson County, which mentioned that similar cancellations have occurred in other parts of the region.

Goshit described the practical and personal costs of this limbo in front of his neighbors. He is unable to move around freely. He is unable to cast a ballot. He is unable to take part in the democratic process of the nation he has lived in for twenty-five years. “That affects my ability to travel, my peace of mind, and the full realization of the American dream that I’ve spent half a life building,” he said to reporters. In the same sentence, he cautiously stated that his family’s current immigration status is stable: he and Regina both have green cards, and two of his children are citizens of the United States. Safety is not at issue in this lawsuit. It has to do with finishing. Regarding the last gate, which was supposed to open in January but never did.

Observing this story from the outside, it seems to capture a specific aspect of what immigration policy looks like when it ceases to be abstract. Following the widespread circulation of her parents’ story, Goshit’s daughter wrote on Instagram that she initially avoided platforms where the story was running but eventually clicked. “Sunday is my father,” she wrote. “He loves people, is a leader at heart, and seeks the truth for everyone.” There is more to this than just him. The final line keeps coming up. There is more to it than just him. A single press conference on a pedestrian mall in Iowa City cannot contain the legal and humanitarian situation represented by the proclamation affecting 39 countries and the thousands of people whose applications are now indefinitely suspended, but one professor’s federal lawsuit may at least start to address it.