Research Guides: Spare Parts (First Year Read, 2018): Immigration to the U.S.

Immigration: U.S. Laws and Regulations

Laws, Regulations and Guides (U.S. Customs and Immigration Services)
The list of legislation and regulations that make up current U.S. immigration law and policy.

American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction by David A. Gerber
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 9780199715817
Publication Date: 2011-01-01

Immigration: Facts and Statistics

Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States (Migration Policy Institute, Feb. 2018)
"This Spotlight offers in one accessible resource the most current data available about the nearly 44 million immigrants living in the United States in 2016." Includes demographic information, population change over time, status of children, refugees and asylum seekers, undocumented immigrants, and immigration enforcement. Data is drawn from MPI research, the U.S. Census, the Department of Homeland Security, and Mexican government sources.
The MPI is an independent, nonpartisan think tank founded in 2001.
Charity Navigator: Migration Policy Institute
It is vitally important when finding information from the internet that you look into the source. Charity Navigator rates nonprofits by their practices and how much information they make available, and this page about the Migration Policy Institute gives you a better sense of the think tank beyond the MPI's own website.
Immigration & Emigration: New York Times Topics (1860-present)
The New York Times Topic page on immigration and emigration, an archive of articles published from 1860 through the present.

Immigration: Department of Homeland Security and ICE

In 2002, as a result of the attacks of 9/11/2001, Congress passed the Homeland Security Act, which, among many other things, restructured several federal agencies to fall under the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS), led by a new member of the Cabinet, the Secretary of Homeland Security (H.R.5005, Homeland Security Act of 2002, Titles I and IV).

DHS includes the following sub-agencies:

Coast Guard
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
National Communications System
Secret Service
Transportation Security Administration
US Citizenship and Immigration Services
US Customs and Border Protection
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

The Homeland Security Act also transferred "to the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) INS functions with respect to the care of unaccompanied alien children" (Sec. 462).

US Department of Homeland Security Organizational Chart (as of May 2018)
To get a better sense of how DHS is structured, check out their organizational chart.
United State Code, Title 6: Domestic Security (6 U.S.C. 101)
The federal law governing the structure of the Department of Homeland Security, based on the Homeland Security Act of 2002.
Public Law 107-296 - Homeland Security Act of 2002 (Govinfo.gov)
The text of the legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security. Signed into law by President George W. Bush.

The office of Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) was abolished and its duties distributed to new offices, along with some of the duties of the U.S. Customs Service:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection
- which includes the Border Patrol
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

ICE is responsible for enforcing immigration laws and investigating potential violations as it relates to the movement of people and objects. Whereas INS agents had conducted raids to capture undocumented immigrants previously (for an example, see Spare Parts, p. 23), since March 2003 ICE agents have conducted these raids.