Asylum, Immigration and Refugee Law
The first step in your research should be to familiarize yourself with the relevant statutes and regulations affecting your particular immigration sitution. For this you should use the US resources listed below: primary sources and secondary sources.
If you are preparing an asylum case, the next step is to broaden your research to look at the following: country conditions, relevant international law, relevant foreign law and secondary sources.
There are additional research guides which might also be of help below. Also, if you are trying to keep up with developments in the area look here.
Please contact Stefanie Weigmann sweig@bu.edu
Researching the Law of the United States
Legislation:
- Sources for immigration law include:
- Immigration and Nationality Act (BCIS)
- Title 8 of the United States Code (LII)
- For more places you can find statutes, see Federal Statutory Research
- Recently enacted legislation, called
Public Laws, is available in
- List of Public Laws Amending the INA from the BCIS web site.
- For more information see Federal Statutory Research
- Recently introduced legislation, called bills, can be located in many places, see Bills and Amendments
- It may also be helpful to look at the legislative history of federal statutes.
Administrative law:
- Regulations
- 8 C.F.R., as well as in other C.F.R. sections (BCIS)
- 8 C.F.R. (LII)
- Bender's Immigration Regulations Service (Law Annex KF4819 G67 1988).
- For more sources, see Sources for Federal Regulations
- Proposed Regulations or recently published regulations
- the BCIS provides access to Federal Register sections related to immigration (1994-present)
- For more sources, see Sources for Federal Regulations
- Executive Orders of the President can be found in:
- Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations, see above.
Administrative agencies related to immigration include:
- Enforcement of immigration law lies with the Bureau
of Citizenship and Immigration Services, a bureau of the US
Department of Homeland Security.
- BCIS procedure manuals and policy guidances
- BCIS Interpretations and Operation Instructions supplement the statutes and regulations governing immigration.
- BCIS: Asylum information
- BCIS: Refugees information
- BCIS: Humanitarian Parole information
- Asylum Officer Procedures and Training
- Basic Training Course (Rocky Mountain Surviviors Center)
- Guidelines and Training Manuals (Asylumlaw.org)
- Administrative Decisions: Immigration law judges handle
cases of exclusion and deportation and some of their decisions
can be found in
- Interpreter Releases (Law Annex KF4802 I57)
- Select opinions are available at the INS site.
- The Board
of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") handles appeals from decisions
of immigration law judges. The rulings of the BIA can be
found:
- Administrative Decisions Under Immigration and Nationality Laws (Law Annex KF4821 A6)
- Interpreter Releases (Law Annex KF 4802 I57)
- LexisNexis (IMMIG:BIA)
- Westlaw (FIA & BIA)
- Interim Decisions (1976 (Vol 16) - present) in .pdf format from the Department of Justice.
- Executive Office for Immigration Review ("EOIR") also has a chronological index of recent BIA and an alphabetical index of Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer decisions available.
- A digest of administrative law decisions allows you to search for decisions by topic.
- Patel's Immigration Law Digest (Law Annex KF4814 P37 1982)
- Secretary of State:
through its visa
office and the United
States consuls shares enforcement responsibilities.
- Department of State issues:
- State Department Advisory Opinions to district directors in asylum cases are likely only available from the district office handling the case.
- Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (Law Annex JC571 C6).
- Department of State Dispatch (Law Annex JX 232 A333) (ceased in 1999) (1999- , refer to Department press releases)
- Country Background Notes
- Foreign Affairs Manual
Case Law
- Appeals from the BIA are heard in the federal courts. For case law see Federal Case Law Research.
Forms and sample documents
- BCIS Forms and Fees
- Federal Immigration Laws and Regulations (Law Reserve and Law Annex KF4805.99 U54)
- Steel on Immigration Law (Law Annex KF 4819 S74)
- Immigration Procedures Handbook (Law Reserve KF 4819 I48
Secondary Sources
- Books
- Use the online catalog to search for books and loose-leaf services related to immigration and refugee law.
- AILA'S Asylum Primer: A practical guide to U.S. asylum law and procedure, Law Civil Clinic KF4836 .G47 2007
- Basic Procedural Manual for Asylum Represention Affirmatively and in Removal Proceedings (Midwest Immigrant and Human Righst Center 2005)
- Affirmative Asylum Procedures Manual (USCIS 2007)
- LGBT/HIV Asylum Manual (ImmigrationEquality)
- Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook (2002 and 2000 Law Annex KF4819.3 .K87 and 1998: Law Reserve KF4819.3 .K87)
- Immigration Law and Procedure (Law Annex KF4819 .G67)
- International Immigration and Nationality Law (Law
Annex
K3275 .A48) - Immigration Law in a Nutshell (Law Reserve KF 4819.3 .W4)
- Interpreter Releases (Law Annex KF 4802 I57)
- Immigration Monitoring Report (Law Pappas)
- Immigration Newsletter (Law Annex JV6001 A1 I46)
- Press releases available at government web sites, like the BCIS or the Department of State related to your topic
- BCIS Handbooks, Manuals and Policy Guidance available at the BCIS web site
- Periodicals
- Legaltrac: An index of law review articles from 1980-present). Also on Westlaw (LRI) and LexisNexis (LGLND).
- Full text law review databases on Westlaw and LexisNexis. However, be aware, the date coverage of law review articles varies greatly. Also, searching full-text law review articles can be inefficient, as a search can return an extremely large numbers of articles.
- Hein Online: full-text law journals, many of which are not available on LexisNexis or Westlaw, can be searched or browsed and printed in .pdf format.
- News: you can search newspapers on Westlaw and LexisNexis to find related newspaper articles.
Preparing an Asylum Case
Country Conditions
- From Governments
- National Documentation Packets
- USCIS Profile Series
- State Department
- IND Country Specific Operational Guidance Notes
- Home Office Country Reports
- Asylumlaw.org - includes government documents like RIC reports
- From IGOs
- Refworld and UNHCR
- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Country Reports
- From NGOs
- Human Rights Watch World Report
- Amnesty International Country Reports
- Freedom House Country Reports
- Forced Migration Online: Digital Library
- Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre: Key IDP Documents
- Refugees International: Field Reports
- Internal Displacement Monitering Centre: Resources
- From News Sources
International Law
- Treaties
- Basic Documents on International Migration Law (Law Annex K3275 A35 B37 1997)
- RefWorld: International Instruments (UNHCR)
- International Migration Law Database: International Instruments and Regional Instruments (IMO)
- International Human Rights Instruments: Refugees and Asylum(University of Minnesota Human Rights Library)
- Other Human Rights Treaties (OUNHCHR)
- International Humanitarian Law: Treaties and Documents (IRC)
- For further Treaty Information see United States Treaty Research Guide
- International Tribunals
- IGO Documents
Foreign Law
- Statutes
- Judicial Decisions
- Refworld
- Refugee Caselaw Site (Uof Michigan and Melbourne)
- International Law in Domestic Courts
- Global Legal Information Network (GLIN)
- For futher information look under individual countries
Secondary Sources
- Books
- Use the online catalog to search for books and loose-leaf services related to international immigration and refugee law.
- Human Rights Protection for Refugees, Asylum-Seekers, and Internally Displaced Persons: A guide to international mechanisms, Law Annex K3230.R45 H867 2002
- Refugee Law in Context: the exclusion clause, Law Annex K3268.3 .R44 1999
- Refugee Law and Policy: A comparative and international approach, Law Reserve KF4836.A7 M87 2002
- Who is a Refugee?: A comparative case law study, Law Annex K3274 .W46 1997
- Refugee Protection: A Guide to International Refugee Law (UNHCR)
- Refugee Protection in International Law (UNHCR)
- Periodicals
- Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
- Legal Journals Index via Westlaw (LJI)(1986 to date)
- Hein Online: Foreign and International Law Resources Database
- Max Planck Institute Public International Law index (Law Annex Ref JX3091 P816).
- RAVE which can be searched (the abbreviations for the journals are under "research tools")
- Peace Palace Catalog - indexes journal articles
- UNBISnet - the UN catalog also indexes books and articles
- ASILEX - allows you to search all American Society of International Law publications
- Articles in Digital Library (Forced Migration Online)
Asylum, Immigration and Refugee Law Resources
For further information on researching asylum, immigration and refugee law, see section 8 of Specialized Legal Research (Law Reserve and Law Ref Desk KF240 S63 1987).
Some helpful web sites for asylum, immigration and refugee research include:
- Foreign and Intentional Law Resources: An Annotated Guide to Web Sites Around the World: Immigration and Asylum Law from Harvard Law School Library
- Guide to International Refugee Law Resources on the Web from the Law Library Resource Exchange
- Immigration Law on the Web from the Law Library Resource Exchange
- Asylum Case Research Guide from Georgetown University Law Center
- Immigration Law: An Overview from Cornell's Legal Information Institute
- Immigration Research Guide from Georgetown University Law Center
- Refugee Case Law Site from the University of Michigan: collects and indexes case law from around the world related to the definition of the word "refugee".
- Office of the Administrative Law Judge, Dept of Labor: Immigration related decisions
- American Immigration Law Foundation
- American Immigration Lawyers Association
- World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII): Law from around the world organized by topic, including:
- International Thesaurus of Refugee Terminology from the UNHCR Library and Forced Migration Online (FMO)
- SOSIG (Social Science Information Gateway) Law: Human Rights
- Refugees, Asylum, Nationality, Displaced, & Freedom of Movement from EISIL
- Alertnet
Current Awareness in Asylum, Immigration or Refugee Law
- Blogs
- Inter-Governmental Governmental Organizations (IGOs)
- International Organization for Migration
- African Commission on Human and People's Rights
- European Council on Refugees and Exiles
- European Court of Human Rights
- Inter-American Court of Human Rights
- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
- UN High Commissioner for Refugees
- UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
- Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
- American Refugee Committee
- Amnesty International: see Refugees and Migrants
- Forced Migration Online
- Global IDP Project
- Human Rights Watch
- International Committee of the Red Cross
- International Organization for Migration
- Refugees International
- US Committee for Refugees
- World Refugee
- Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children
- General international and foreign news
- World News Connect (BU only)
- LexisNexis and Westlaw: Search the LexisNexis or Westlaw news files for a particular foreign jurisdiction, the United States, or on a specific topic. Consult the Westlaw Database Directory or the LexisNexis Directory of Sources to choose the best database.
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Page maintained by Stefanie Weigmann
Last updated:November 2008