The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1933 to 1940 and the U.S. Department of Justice from 1940 to 2003.
The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) is a program within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,which is under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,to manage foreign students and exchange visitors in the United States through the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). The SEVP encompasses the F status,J status,and M status. The exchange visitor part of the program is managed by the U.S. Department of State,although the SEVIS system is maintained by ICE.
The White House Fellows program is a non-partisan central fellowship established via executive order by President Lyndon B. Johnson in October 1964. The fellowship is one of USA's most prestigious programs for leadership and public service,offering exceptional US Citizens first-hand experience working at the highest levels of the central government. The fellowship was founded based upon a suggestion from John W. Gardner,then the president of Carnegie Corporation and later the sixth secretary of health,education,and welfare.
Richard Lewis Thornburgh was an American lawyer,author,and politician who served as the 76th United States attorney general from 1988 to 1991 under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. A Republican,he previously served as the 41st governor of Pennsylvania and as the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
The United States Customs Service was a federal law enforcement agency of the U.S. federal government. Established on July 31,1789,it collected import tariffs,performed other selected border security duties,as well as conducted criminal investigations.
The Immigration Reform and Control Act was passed by the 99th United States Congress and signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on November 6,1986.
Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha,462 U.S. 919 (1983),was a United States Supreme Court case ruling in 1983 that the one-house legislative veto violated the constitutional separation of powers.
The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) is an administrative appellate body within the Executive Office for Immigration Review of the United States Department of Justice responsible for reviewing decisions of the U.S. immigration courts and certain actions of U.S. Citizenship Immigration Services,U.S Customs and Border Protection,and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The BIA was established in 1940 after the Immigration and Naturalization Service was transferred from the United States Department of Labor to the Department of Justice.
The Sanctuary movement was a religious and political campaign in the United States that began in the early 1980s to provide safe haven for Central American refugees fleeing civil conflict. The movement was a response to federal immigration policies that made obtaining asylum difficult for Central Americans.
Walter Polovchak is a Ukrainian-American man who,as a child,became the center of the legal case Polovchak v. Meese after he refused,at 12,to leave the United States to return to Ukraine,then part of the USSR,with his parents.
Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Doherty,502 U.S. 314 (1992),was a United States Supreme Court case which confirmed that the Attorney General of the United States has broad discretion to reopen deportation proceedings,as well as other adjudications heard before immigration courts.
During the 18th and most of the 19th centuries,the United States had limited regulation of immigration and naturalization at a national level. Under a mostly prevailing "open border" policy,immigration was generally welcomed,although citizenship was limited to “white persons”as of 1790,and naturalization subject to five year residency requirement as of 1802. Passports and visas were not required for entry into America,rules and procedures for arriving immigrants were determined by local ports of entry or state laws. Processes for naturalization were determined by local county courts.
Adams v. Howerton,673 F.2d 1036,cert. denied,458 U.S. 1111 (1982) is a decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that held that the term "spouse" refers to an opposite-sex partner for the purposes of immigration law and that this definition met the standard at the time for rational basis review. It was the first U.S. lawsuit to seek recognition of a same-sex marriage by the federal government.
Thomas Crooks Ferguson was a United States Ambassador to Brunei and a former US government official. He served as deputy commissioner and chief operating officer of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Donald Belton Ayer is an American attorney who served as the 24th United States Deputy Attorney General from 1989 to 1990 under President George H. W. Bush.
Doris Marie Meissner is a former Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS),the agency previously responsible for immigration enforcement in the United States. She headed the INS from October 18,1993 to November 18,2000,under United States President Bill Clinton and United States Attorney General Janet Reno. She is currently Senior Fellow and Director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute and has previously worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Family Fairness was a program run by the Immigration and Naturalization Services in the United States from late 1987 to late 1990. The initial version was introduced in late 1987 by then INS Commissioner Alan C. Nelson,working under then Attorney General Edwin Meese and then President Ronald Reagan. An expansion of the program was introduced in early 1990 by INS Commissioner Gene McNary working under then Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and then United States President George H. W. Bush. The program was created through executive action,in order to meet the problem of "split-eligibility" families created by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986,pending legislation that would address the issue. The Immigration Act of 1990 replaced it with a legislatively sanctioned Family Unity Program,that continues to be in force today.
Federal policy oversees and regulates immigration to the United States and citizenship of the United States. The United States Congress has authority over immigration policy in the United States,and it delegates enforcement to the Department of Homeland Security. Historically,the United States went through a period of loose immigration policy in the early-19th century followed by a period of strict immigration policy in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Policy areas related to the immigration process include visa policy,asylum policy,and naturalization policy. Policy areas related to illegal immigration include deferral policy and removal policy.
The Immigration Examinations Fee Account (IEFA) is an account in the Treasury of the United States into which all revenues collected from fees for immigration and naturalization are deposited,and that is used to fund the costs associated with providing the immigration and naturalization benefits. The account funds most of the operations of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS),the sub-agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that is tasked with most of the associated work.
