Immigration Law

You can find cases by searching for headnotes related to immigration law in LexisNexis or Westlaw.

LexisNexis:

Immigration Law>General Overview

Family Law>Adoption> Procedures>Foreign Adoption

Education Law>Students>Foreign Students

International Law>Sovereign States & Individuals>Asylum

Westlaw:

Topic: Aliens, Immigration, and Citizenship

Topic: Adoption, Key Number 24, Foreign Adoption

The majority of federal statutes governing immigration law are codified in the Immigration & Nationality Act (INA), located in Title 8 of the U.S.C., Aliens & Nationality, §§ 1101-1178.

Pertinent federal statutes can also be found in Title 6, Domestic Security; Title 18, Crimes & Criminal Procedure; Title 22, Foreign Relations; Title 29, Labor; and Title 42, Public Health & Welfare.

Law Students can access these and other statutes using the United States Code Service in LexisNexis or the United States Code Annotated in Westlaw. 

In addition to cases located in LexisNexis or Westlaw, immigration rulings handed down by federal agencies can be located in several places.

You can locate 50-state surveys on state immigration laws using HeinOnline's Subject Compilations of State Laws.

You can locate cases by each state by going to Westlaw or LexisNexis.  You can also search across all states by using the links below.

To find rules and regulations that govern how federal agencies interact with immigration law, you must consult the Federal Register (FR) and the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).  You can access both of these resources via LexisNexis or Westlaw.  

You can locate rules and regulations that are currently in force via the following CFR titles:  Title 8. Aliens and Nationality, Title 20. Employee's Benefits, Title 22. Foreign Relations, Title 28. Judicial Administration Act, Title 29. Labor, and Title 42. Public Health.

The link below will allow you to search only those titles that deal with immigration law.

Code of Federal Regulations

The Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R) is the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the departments and agencies of the Federal Government. It is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to Federal regulation. The 50 subject matter titles contain one or more individual volumes, which are updated once each calendar year, on a staggered basis

Federal Register

The Federal Register (Fed. Reg.) is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents.

Regulatory Histories

Legislative history can be extraordinarily useful for determining the intent behind a law, whether you're trying to determine why the law was changed or what Congress meant by a specific phrase. Legislative history is typically found in documents created during the legislative process, including reports, hearings, records of debates, and different versions of the bill.