INTRODUCTION

Immigration Law, specifically the enforcement of this law, changed dramatically after the attacks of September 11th and the subsequent passage of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which created the Department of Homeland Security. Where this responsibility had previously been that of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) within the Department of Justice, it is now the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who is charged with enforcing this law. Particular divisions of the Department of Homeland Security are responsible for administrative and enforcement functions for immigration.

One division of DHS, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), carries out the administrative functions involved in immigration.

The other two divisions, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), enforce the laws and protect the U.S. borders.

The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), a division of the Department of Justice, plays an important role in the administration of immigration law (see Administrative Materials, supra.)

STATUTES AND LEGISLATION

CURRENT STATUTES

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides the foundation for immigration law. It was passed in 1952 and has been amended several times since (The USCIS wepage provides a list of amendments to the INA by public law number since the 99th Congress). The INA is found in Title 8 of the United States Code.

The following is a guide to finding the Immigration and Naturalization Act and other applicable statutes.

United States Code

• Official and annotated codes in print available in the Law Library: USC, USCA, USCS
  
• Lexis (Legal > Area of Law-By Topic > Immigration > Statutes & Legislative Materials > USCS - Immigration - Titles 8, 18, 29 and 42)
• Westlaw (USCA)
• United States Code: from the US House Office of the Law Revision Council or Cornell Legal Information Institute .
• Laws, Regulations and Guides - from the USCIS webpage (The site collects law, regulations and interpretations relating to immigration and the work of the immigration-related bureau of the Department of Homeland Security.)

PROPOSED LEGISLATION

This guide makes no attempt to detail proposed immigration bills. Rather, a search for "immigration" in Thomas' Legislation in Current Congress database will retrieve these bills and provide their status. Additionally, here are other that monitor proposed legislation:

• Thomas: from the Library of Congress (search Legislation in Current Congress for bills from the 111th Congress; search Find More Legislation; Multiple, Previous Congresses for earlier bills and laws.)
• CRS Reports on current immigration legislation: available from ProQuest Congressional (Complete an Advance Search, specifying CRS reports, and search on keywords including immigration).
• Lexis (Legal > Legislation & Politics - U.S. & U.K. > U.S. Congress > Congressional Full Text Bills - Current Congress)
• Westlaw (database: BILLTXT)
• National Journal's CongressDaily: subscription accessed through Law Library.

FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE HISTORIES

For many federal immigration laws, there are compiled legislative histories available in the Library. These compilations usually include bills, Congressional Record debates, reports and hearings. To find a compiled legislative history, try a keyword search in Encore or GULLiver, such as immigration and nationality act and legislative history. For complete legislative history information, read our Legislative History Research Guide. Good starting places for legislative history research include: 

• USCCAN (KF48 .U54); also available on Westlaw, database: LH
• CIS Legislative History Indexes (Reading Room and 1st Floor, Media Services)
• ProQuest Congressional (formerly Lexis Nexis Congressional): do an advanced search and specify Legislative Histories
• Thomas: recent legislation only
• Hein Online: provides compiled legislative histories for the following immigration statutes:
  • Immigration Act of 1990: Pub. L. No. 101-649
  • Immigration and Nationality Acts - Legislative History and Related Acts 1977 - 1986 (First Series)
  • Immigration and Nationality Acts - Legislative History and Related Acts 1950 - 1978

FEDERAL AGENCIES

• Department of Homeland Security
  
  • U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services USCIS
    On March 1, 2003, the responsibility for providing immigration-related services and benefits such as naturalization and work authorization were transferred from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to USCIS.
  • U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: responsible for enforcing immigration and customs laws.
    
  • U.S. Customs and Border Protection: primarily responsible for keeping terrorists and weapons out of the U.S., also facilitates trade and travel and enforces other administrative regulations.
    
• Department of Justice
  
  • Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR)
    The Attorney General of the United States delegates authority to EOIR to administer and interpret Federal immigration law and regulations through the conduct of immigration court proceedings appellate reviews, and administrative hearings.
    Three components:
    • Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) hears appeals of decisions made in individual cases by Immigration Judges, DHS District Directors, or other immigration officials.
    • Office of the Chief Immigration Judge (OCH) oversees all the Immigration Courts and their proceedings
    • Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO) adjudicates cases concerning employer sanctions, document fraud and immigration-related employment discrimination
  • Office for Special Counsel for Immigration-related Unfair Employment Practice: responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provisions of the INA; enforces laws related to national origin discrimination, unfair documentary practices relating to the employment eligibility verification process, and from retaliation.
    
  • Office of Immigration Litigation (OIL): has jurisdiction over all civil immigration matters and coordinates immigration matters before federal district and circuit courts.
    
• Department of Labor
  • Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) (Office of Administrative Law Judges):jurisdiction over the alien labor certification process and appeals.
    
• Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children and Families
  • Office of Refugee Resettlement: provides resources to newly arrived refugees in the United States.
    
• Department of State
  • Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM): provides aid for refugees, victims of conflict and stateless persons around the globe.
  • Visa Information Center: responsibility for handling visa requests (both of a temporary and permanent nature) from abroad falls with the U.S. Department of State.
    

ADMINISTRATIVE MATERIALS

The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), a division of the Department of Justice, plays an important role in the administration of immigration law. The EOIR supervises both the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) and the Office of the Chief Immigration Judge.

The following is a guide to finding administrative regulations and rulings.

ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATIONS

Code of Federal Regulations: Title 8 of the CFR deals with "Aliens and Nationality". Title 8 is available in full on the USCIS website. However, many other sections of the CFR also deal with immigration issues and are also available on the USCIS website.

• CFR - Reading Room
• GPO Access: also provides the e-CFR
• Lexis (Legal > Areas of Law-By Topic > Immigration >administrative Materials & Regulations > CFR-Immigration Titles)
• Westlaw (CFR)

Federal Register

• Print KF70 .A2 Wms Reading Room Mezzanine; Microform KF70 .A2 Media (Law Library has 1936-2004)
  
• FDSYS: 1994 - present (searchable and browseable).
• Hein Online: 1936 to present
• Lexis (Legal > Areas of Law-By Topic > Immigration > Administrative Materials & Regulations > Federal Register and CFR-Immigration): July 1980 to present
• Westlaw (FR): January 1981 to present

ADMINISTRATIVE RULINGS

Board of Immigration Appeals Decisions

• Board of Immigration Appeals: rulings available from vol. 8, 1955; includes cumulative indexes for all volumes as well.
• Lexis (Legal > Areas of Law -By Topic > Immigration > Administrative Materials & Regulations > Agency Decisions > Immigration Precedent Decisions): August 29, 1940 to present.
  
• Lexis (Legal > Areas of Law-By Topic > Immigration > Administrative Materials & Regulations > Agency Decisions > Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) & AAU Non-Precedent Decisions)
• Westlaw (FIM-BIA) : August 1940 to present
  
• Administrative Decisions Under Immigration and Nationality Laws (1940 - 2006, publication ceased) KF4812 .A2
• Hein's Cumulative Index to Interim Precedent Decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals KF4812.7 .H45
  

Decisions issued by the U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Administrative Appeals Unit ("AAU"). Office of Administrative Appeals

• On the USCIS website - provides Administrative Decisions from 2005 - present. The decisions are organized by subject area, and are available in PDF format.
• Lexis (Legal > Areas of Law-By Topic > Immigration > Administrative Materials & Regulations > Agency Decisions > Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) & AAU Non-Precedent Decisions)
• Westlaw (FIM-AAU): 1989 to present
  

OCAHO EFOIA Decisions (Immigration-related decisions issued by the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer of the US DOJ)

• Available from the OCAHO webpage - arranged by volume number, or alphabetically by case name.
• Lexis (Legal > Areas of Law-By Topic > Immigration > Administrative Materials & Regulations > Agency Decisions> Office of Chief Administrative Hearing Officer Immigration Review Decisions): March 1988 to present
  
• Westlaw (FIM-OCAHO): March 1988 to present
  
• Cumulative Index of Administrative Law Judge and Chief Administrative Hearing Officer Decisions KF4812.7 .U5 (Law Library has 1991 - 1997)
  

Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals Decisions

• Lexis (Legal > Areas of Law-By Topic > Immigration > Administrative Materials & Regulations > Agency Decisions > Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals Decisions): Feb. 1987 to present
  
• Westlaw (FIM-BALCA): Nov. 1987 to present
  
• OALJ Law Library Immigration Collection (Office of Administrative Law Judges, Department of Labor): includes BALCA decisions and BALCA en banc decisions.
  

CURRENT AWARENESS

Looseleaf Services and Current Awareness Services

• Austin T. Fragomen et al., Immigration Law and Business KF4819 .F7 (Law Library cancelled print subscription in 2009); Available on Westlaw (database: IMLB)
• Charles Gordon and Stanley Mailman, Immigration Law and Procedure, Rev. ed. KF4819.G62 1988; Available on Lexis (file IMMLAW)
• Immigration Law Service  KF4815 .I45 1985 (Publication date: 1985 - 2003)
  
• Immigration Law Service, 2d KF4815 .I45 2004 (Law Library cancelled subscription in 2009); Available on Westlaw (database: IMMLS2d)
  
• Interpreter Releases KF4700 .A15 A54 (1985 -); Available on Westlaw from January 1987 (database: INTERREL)

SECONDARY SOURCES

GETTING BACKGROUND INFORMATION

When you begin a research project, it is often helpful to have an overview of the topic, to familiarize yourself with the issues, and to learn what words are commonly used to describe them. This will aid greatly when searching for more specific information later. The following sources are good for background and overview. Other titles can be found by searching on GULLiver under the following subject headings:

Aliens - United States
Americanization
Citizenship - United States
Emigration and Immigration
Emigration and Immigration Law - United States
United States - Emigration and Immigration

TREATISES AND CASEBOOKS

T. Alexander Aleinikoff, David A. Martin & Hiroshi Motomura, Immigration and Citizenship Process and Policy KF4818 .A43

Richard A. Boswell, Essentials of Immigration Law KF4819.B67

Austin T. Fragomen, Immigration Fundamentals: A Guide to Law and Practice KF4819.F725 (updated regularly)

Ira J. Kurzban, Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook: A Comprehensive Outline and Reference Tool KF4819.3 K87

Richard D. Steel, Steel on Immigration Law, 2d. ed. KF4819 .S74 (1992 -2010) and KF4819 .S742 2011 (Law Library ceased subscription in 2012); Available on Westlaw (STEEL)

David S. Weissbrodt, Immigration Law and Procedure in a Nutshell KF 4819.3 .W4

FINDING JOURNAL ARTICLES

For recent articles, online sources are the most effective. You can use Lexis or Westlaw, for the full text of many (but NOT all) law journals, or you can use online indexes from the Library's homepage to get citations for articles in just about all legal journals. For a complete guide on how to find journal articles, consult "Using Journal Articles for Legal and Non-Legal Research " research guide on the Law Library web site.

Lexis and Westlaw

Both Lexis and Westlaw include selected immigration law journals in full text. Generally they do not have articles before 1985, but coverage varies by journal. The advantages of searching on Lexis and Westlaw is that you can access Lexis or Westlaw from anywhere and have the full text of the articles right there. The main disadvantage is lack of coverage: you will not find articles more than 20 years old, and you won't be searching in all journals, just selected ones.

Law Journal Indexes

Coverage:

• Index to Legal Periodicals and Books: 1982 to present
• (Index to) Legal Periodicals Retrospective: 1908-1981
• Legal Trac (Legal Resource Index): 1980 to present

Availability: Electronic (links provided in Articles for Legal & Non-Legal Research Guide); Print: Index to Legal Periodicals KF8 .I4 (1926 - 1994) Legal Trac KF8 .C8 (Law Library cancelled print subscription in 2008)

How to Search: You can search by keywords - just enter them without connectors. You can also search for a specific author if you want, and if you know the title of an article you can search that way, too.

Advantages and Disadvantages: The main advantage is coverage: you are searching all journals, back to 1908. The drawback is that you don't have the full text, just citations.

How to Access the Articles

If you are using an index that includes only citations, you will need to get the full text of your articles. Check the list of major journals below. This indicates what the Library has for each journal and where to find it. If your journal is not on the list below, search Encore or GULLiver, under the journal title to see if we have it. We have almost all scholarly legal journals.

The library also subscribes to many mega-databases which include full-text journal articles, some even in pdf format. You may use the E-Journal Finder (Tutorial) to find electronic journals available either in various mega-databases or directly through different publishers. You can type the title of the journal (not the article) you wish to retrieve, click the resulting search results to connect to the electronic version of that journal and open the right issue to retrieve your article.

If you need an article from a journal that the Library does not have, contact the Reference Desk. We can help you find a library that does have it. You can also request the article on Interlibrary Loan.

Major Immigration Law Journals

• Georgetown Immigration Law Journal
  
• • Print: K7 .E44 (Subscription v. 1- , 1985/1986 - )
  • Electronic versions (1985 - )
    
• Immigration and Nationality Law Review
• • Electronic version (1976 - )
    

OTHER USEFUL DATABASES

• PolicyFile: Public Policy Research and Analysis
  Abstracts of data from public policy think tanks, university research programs and publishers, with coverage from 1990. Links to organizational home pages and to full text documents, where available.
• Academic Search Premier
  Provides full text for 3,467 publications covering academic areas of study including social sciences, humanities, education, and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies. A total of 4,425 titles are abstracted and indexed, of which 2,591 are peer-reviewed.

GETTING SPECIFIC FACTS

Forms and Guidelines

Immigration Forms: Online and available from the USCIS website (Includes immigration forms for employment based, family based, green card based, humanitarian based, citizenship and naturalization based forms. Forms are freely available and in a PDF downloadable format.)

Immigration Handbooks, Manuals and Policy Guidelines:includes a link to the full Adjudicator's Field Manual.

Interpretations: have been updated by the DHS less frequently over time as the trend has been to include more information directly in regulations and field manuals. Interpretations were created originally to supplement and clarify provisions of the INA and regulations for the courts. Interpretations primarily deal with procedural matters.

Immigration Policy and Procedural Memoranda: From the USCIS, this memoranda gives guidance to adjudicators who process applications and petitions. This webpage also allows you to view memoranda in categories by subject.

Immigration Statistics

• U.S. Census Bureau
  
• • Data by Subject: http://www.census.gov/population/www/index.html
    
  • United States foreign-born population: http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/foreign.html
    
  • Immigration: http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/immigration.html
  • Geographical mobility/migration http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/migrate.html
• Office of Immigration Statistics (USCIS)
• Federation for American Immigration Reform
  

ORGANIZATIONS

• ABA Commission on Immigration Policy, Practice and Pro Bono 
• American Immigration Council (formerly The American Immigration Law Foundation)
• American Immigration Lawyers Association : The AILA homepage offers commentary on immigration issues, a bookstore of AILA publications, news articles, hot topics, access to congressional testimony and statements, in addition to links other immigration related web sites.
• Center for Immigration Studies : A think tank devoted solely to research and policy analysis of economic, social, demographic, fiscal and other impacts of immigration on the U.S. This site provides full-text access to its monthly publication The Backgrounder (formerly, Immigration Review). The Backgrounder offers commentary, reports, studies, and statistics on U.S. immigration.
• Immigration and Ethnic History Society 
• National Immigration Forum
• U.S. Committee for Refugees
  

OTHER RELATED RESEARCH GUIDES

• CALS Asylum Case Research Guide
• Immigration/Human Rights on the Web Research Guide
  
• Refugee Protection Research Guide
• Visalaw.com - The Immigration Law Portal
  
  

  Links 11/12 (ET)
  Revised and Updated 08/09 (LS)