21 Dec 2011

INA to USC Conversion Table

"A dual citation system exists for federal immigration statutes. One is the Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA") classification. A parallel system lists the statutes in Title 8 of the United States Code. Identical immigration statutes appear in both, but with differing section numbers that do not match. Also, cross-references to other immigration statutes use only the numbers of the statutory collection being referenced. Federal immigration regulations generally follow the INA classification, as do immigration court decisions, so for a quick reference to regulations implementing a certain statute or understanding immigration judge decisions, the INA system is probably superior as a source. But many federal appellate court judicial decisions, and congressional research materials refer to or can be accessed much more easily using the numbers assigned to the statutes by the United States Code. There are tables in hard copy paper works and flat computer files to make finding the parallel citation easier from one system to another, and some INA collections give the parallel U.S.C. Code citation, but nothing employing computer search online. I developed this tool to fill the gap." - John Messing, Esq., 2011.