Immigration Law in the United States

By Mathilde Holmer

The power to regulate immigration in the United States belongs to Congress (see Weissbrodt & Danielson, p. 70. See also Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution). Immigration laws passed by Congress can be found in title 8 of the U.S.C. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (INA) further forms the foundation for immigration law in the US (Weissbrodt & Danielson, p. 15). The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), Public Law No. 82-414, 66 Stat. 163 (1952), may be accessed under title 8, U.S.C. § 1101-1537.

In 1980, Congress amended the Immigration and Nationality Act by passing the Refugee Act (Refugee Act of 1980, Public Law No. 96-212, 94 Stat. 102), which consists of provisions relating to the status of refugees. The Refugee Act broadened the previous definition of refugees in order to better comply with the international definition in the Refugee Convention and Protocol (Weissbrodt & Danielson, p. 19). The Refugee Act remains one of a very few statutes in U.S. domestic law that has directly incorporated the language and concepts of an international treaty (Farbenblum, B., “Executive Deference in U.S. Refugee Law: Internationalist Paths Through and Beyond Chevron”, Duke Law Journal, Vol. 60, 2011, p. 1059-1122, p. 1069).

Up until 2003, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was responsible for
carrying out the nation’s immigration laws. However, this agency was abolished when
Congress passed the Homeland Security Act in 2002 (Homeland Security Act, Pub. L. 107-296, 116 Stat. 2135 (2002)). Since then, three subdivisions, so called bureaus, under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have been responsible for enforcing and administering immigration law. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is responsible for asylum and refugee applications, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is responsible for enforcing the immigration laws, including the detention of non-citizens, and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is responsible for customs inspections at U.S. ports of entry and border crossings (Weissbrodt & Danielson, p. 83-86).

Resources

Further Reading

• Feller, E., Turk, V., Nicholson, F. (eds.), Refugee Protection in International Law,
  UNHCR’s Global Consultations on International Protection, Cambridge University
  Press, 2003
• Gibney, M., Global Refugee Crisis, 2nd edition, ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2010
• Goodwin-Gil, G.S., The Refugee in International Law, 2nd edition, Oxford University
  Press, 1996
• Goodwin, G.S., “Article 31 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees:
  Non-Penalization, Detention, and Protection”, in Feller, E., Volker, T., Nicholson, F.
  (eds.), Refugee Protection in International Law, UNHCR’s Global Consultations on
  International Protection, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 185-252
• Jastram, K., Achiron, M., Refugee Protection – A Guide to International Refugee Law,
  UNHCR Handbook for Parliamentarians, No. 2, Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2001
• Kälin, W., “Supervising the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees:
  Article 35 and beyond”, in Feller, E., Turk, V., Nicholson, F. (eds.), Refugee Protection
  in International Law, UNHCR’s Global Consultations on International Protection,
  Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 613- 666
• Ramji-Nogales, J., Schoenholtz, A., Shrag, P., Refugee Roulette – Disparities in Asylum
  Adjudication and Proposals for Reform, New York University Press, 2009
• Weissbrodt, D., Danielson, L., Immigration Law and Procedure, West Group, 2005