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U.S. Immigration Law Research

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 Naturalization 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, USC, USCA, USCS - available in Library
  • 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 Lexis Nexis 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)
  • CongressDaily: subscription database accessed from the Law Library Web site.

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 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)

FEDERAL AGENCIES

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

  • Current issues - On Reserve at the Circulation Desk (note: older issues are on microfiche/microfilm in Media Services)
  • FDSYS: the new GPO website has the Federal Register available from 1994 - present (searchable and browseable).
  • Hein Online: 1926 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 webpage: 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) (from August 29, 1940)
  • 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) (from August 1940)
  • Administrative decisions under immigration and nationality laws (from v. 1, 1940) KF4812 .A2
  • Hein's Cumulative Index to Interim Precedent Decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals: August 1940-February 1995 KF4812.7 .H45 1997

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) (from 1989)

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) (from March 1988)
  • Westlaw (FIM-OCAHO) (from March 1988)
  • OCAHO Decisions as of July 31, 1997: Cumulative Index of Administrative Law Judge and Chief Administrative Hearing Officer Decisions (Updated through July 31, 1997), KF4812.7 .U5

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) (from Feb. 1987)
  • Westlaw (FIM-BALCA) (from Nov. 1987)
  • 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
    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, 2d KF4815 .I45
    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, 5th ed.
KF4818 .A43 2003

Richard A. Boswell, Essentials of Immigration Law
KF4819.B67 2006

Austin T. Fragomen, Immigration Fundamentals: A Guide to Law and Practice
KF4819.F725 1996 (updated regularly); also available on Westlaw

Ira J. Kurzban, Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook: A Comprehensive Outline and Reference Tool
KF4819.3.K87 2008

Richard D. Steel, Steel on Immigration Law, 2d. ed.
KF 4819 .S74 1992
Available on Westlaw (STEEL)

David S. Weissbrodt, Immigration Law and Procedure in a Nutshell
KF 4819.3 .W4 2005

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 Retro: 1908-1981
  • Legal Trac (Legal Resource Index): 1980 to present

Where to Search: Search Index to Legal Periodicals and Books/(Index to) Legal Periodicals Retro (they share the same interface) or Legal Trac. They have a lot of overlap, but for a very thorough search, use both. You can access them from the Library's web site at http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/guides/articles.cfm#Topic

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 the Library's catalog, GULLiver, under the title of the journal to see if we have it. We have almost all scholarly legal journals. The current issues are at the Circulation Desk and the older ones are on the 3rd Floor West.

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 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
    K7 .E44 (v. 1- , 1985/1986 - )
    Lexis GILAWJ from v. 12 no.1, Fall 1997
    Westlaw GEOILJ from v. 3, 1989
    HeinOnline from v. 1, 1985-
  • Immigration and Nationality Law Review
    HeinOnline from v.1, 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

ORGANIZATIONS

  • ABA Commission on Immigration Policy, Practice and Pro Bono
    http://www.abanet.org/immigration/
  • The American Immigration Law Foundation
    http://www.ailf.org/
  • American Immigration Lawyers Association
    http://www.aila.org
    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
    http://www.cis.org
    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.
  • The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)
    http://www.fairus.org/
  • Immigration and Ethnic History Society
    http://www.iehs.org/
  • National Immigration Forum
    http://www.immigrationforum.org
  • U.S. Committee for Refugees
    http://www.refugees.org/

OTHER RELATED RESEARCH GUIDES

Revised and Updated 08/09 (LS)

Page last saved 12-Nov-2009