1. Best Practices In INS Immigration Services
INS was the first governing body that had major control over the immigration issues of the
country. The early days of US immigration history did not have any policy or legislation to
regulate the immigrants. This was due to the fact that the Americans favored and actually
encouraged open immigration. The country was greatly benefitted by the unique and varied skills
of the immigrants which led to a rapid development.
How was the INS founded?
The country’s first immigration ins law was passed in the year 1864, which encouraged
immigration by offering transportation and settlement benefits to the immigrants. Since the
immigrant numbers were within a controllable limit, every state was able to tackle the issue on
its own. It was considered to be a domestic issue before the influx of immigrants began to
increase.
The Immigration Act of 1891 authorized the US Federal Government to undertake complete
control of the immigration system. This led to the formation of the Office of Immigration under
the US Department of Treasury. This streamlined the immigration process with the help of its
immigration stations and its inspectors (offices who were stationed at all immigrant stations).
Till the year 1933, Immigration and Naturalization were treated as two separate issues. The
merger of these two portfolios and the beginning of World War changed their importance. INS
was thus born and it was immediately entrusted with the major responsibility of managing the
country’s security. INS functioned under the US Department of Justice and was headed by a
Commissioner.
Practices of the INS
A general idea of the role of INS is that, it is concerned with the deportation of illegal aliens. The
truth is that, this is only a part in the list of responsibilities of the USCIS. The following are the
functions of the IN
• Strict enforcement of immigration laws
• Helping the asylee and refugees to get the benefits that they are entitled to
• It works in association with other major departments like the Departments of State,
Health, Human services, US Foreign Service and the UN

2. The INS had a workforce of about more than 25,000 employees and control over more than
250 Ports of Entry into the US. This helped them to screen all those who were entering the
US and declare them to be eligible or not. This saved a great deal of money as deportation
costs were minimized.
Illegal immigration became a persistent headache to the US after a few years of the formation
of the INS. The entry of a large number of illegal aliens exposed the fragility of the nation’s
borders as these were the main gateways for them. So the Border Patrol was put into action to
continuously guard the borders and detain illegals. The officers patrol the borders on land,
sea and air as the illegals find every possible way to come in to the US in an illegal fashion.
Major accomplishments of the INS
• Apprehension of more than 1.5 million of illegals
• Deportation of these illegals and around 176,000 criminals from the US
• Winning more than 45,000 criminal cases.
• Receiving around 5 million applications ( immigration benefits and naturalization)
which brought in a revenue of more than $1billion as fee.
All these were accomplished in the year 1999 which could be considered as the most productive
and successful year for the INS.
Reasons for its downfall
It was very difficult for this national body to balance both its responsibilities. Even though the
US was proud of the fact that it was the most favorite choice of immigrants, it found it very
difficult to manage the security issue at its borders. Immigration and naturalization procedures
were going on very smoothly until terrorists staged a monstrous attack on the World Trade
Center on September 11, 2001. Three newly formed components – USCIS, ICE and CBP that
were placed under the newly formed US Department Of Homeland Security shared the functions
of the former INS.