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INS Reorganization
“INS” is an acronym for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, an agency that was dismantled in 2003. The law that formed the INS was the Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA). As a response to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Patriot Act made major changes to the INA in 2001. The feeling existed that the INS no longer met the needs of a society under threat of terrorism.
Among the changes included creating the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), a computerized system to keep track of foreign students living in the US. Other changes included the 2002 Homeland Security Act and the 2002 Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act. These amendments mandated, for reasons of national security, that a number of federal agencies be created, renamed, and reorganized.
On March 1, 2003, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was dismantled and reorganized into the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Within the DHS there are three new agencies: the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The USCIS absorbed the former INS office administration and immigration services. ICE, the main enforcement arm of the DHS, absorbed the former U.S. Customs investigators, the Federal Protective Service, and the Federal Air Marshal Service. And CBP absorbed the former INS and Customs Inspectors, the Department of Agriculture, and the Border Patrol.
As a result of these changes, the U.S. immigration agencies are now more “enforcement-oriented,” meaning that they aim to help increase the security of the U.S., while protecting U.S. citizens from terrorism within their borders.
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