Immigration 101

The U.S. immigration system is complex and can be difficult to understand. These resources provide key data points, historical information, and background on hot topics in immigration. Learn the basics about immigration.

Recent Features

Why Don’t Immigrants Apply for Citizenship?

There is no line available for undocumented immigrants and the “regular channels” do not include them.

READ MORE

Fact Sheet
Temporary Protected Status: An Overview

This fact sheet provides an overview of how Temporary Protected Status designations are made, what benefits TPS confers, and how TPS beneficiaries apply for and regularly renew their status.

READ MORE

How the United States Immigration System Works

U.S. immigration law is very complex. Here's basic information about how the U.S. legal immigration system is designed.

READ MORE

All Immigration 101 Content

  • Blog

U.S. Policies Make It Harder for Mexican Graduates to Participate Fully in the Workforce

May 24, 2019

The post U.S. Policies Make It Harder for Mexican Graduates to Participate Fully in the...

  • Blog

Serving Our Country Is No Longer a Way for Immigrant Soldiers to Gain Citizenship

May 22, 2019

The post Serving Our Country Is No Longer a Way for Immigrant Soldiers to Gain...

  • Blog

White House’s Misguided Immigration Reform Plan Is Set for Failure

May 17, 2019
  • Blog

How Has Immigration Changed in the Last 100 Years?

May 8, 2019

Each new generation of immigrants to the United States has, in time, achieved a high degree of integration into U.S. society. Whether it was immigrants from southern and eastern Europe a century...

  • Blog

Record Low U.S. Birth Rate and Retirements Will Result in Contracting U.S. Prosperity, If Unaddressed

April 26, 2019

The U.S. population is aging quickly. Baby boomers are retiring en masse and Americans are having far fewer children, on average, than any other time in our history. The median age in this country...

  • Blog

Why the White House’s Measures to Curb Visa Overstays Are Inadequate

April 25, 2019

The White House issued a memo on Monday directing the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security to provide recommendations to reduce visa overstays. The recommendations, which are expected within...

  • Blog

Closing USCIS International Offices Will Leave US Citizens, Military Members, and Refugees Abroad Without Help

April 18, 2019

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ international field offices provide critical services to Americans living abroad, as well as refugees and other immigrants. But in a supposed effort to...

  • Blog

How America’s Fluid Racial Identities Are Challenging the Assumption of a Declining White Majority

April 1, 2019

For years, politicians, the media, and social scientists have predicted a declining white-majority population in the United States and a not-too-distant future where minorities assume political...

  • Blog

Immigrants Are Regularly Kept Locked up for Months After Deportation Orders

March 27, 2019

When the U.S. government orders that an immigrant in its custody must be deported, the person isn’t supposed to remain incarcerated for long. Yet the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) often...

  • Blog

Making Sense of the Rising Number of Families Arriving at the Border

March 25, 2019

Over the past few months, a new trend has emerged at the U.S.-Mexico border: more families are crossing and presenting themselves to U.S. officials to ask for asylum. But even though the number of...

  • Blog

Diversity Visa Ban Struck Down by Judge

September 8, 2020

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to resume issuing diversity visas on September 5. Each year, the State Department uses a lottery system to select visa recipients from a broad...

  • Blog

Immigrant Workers are Essential to the United States Postal Service

August 31, 2020

The United States Postal Service (USPS) will play an outsized role in the 2020 presidential election, as more states focus on mail-in voting to help curb the spread of the coronavirus at polling...

  • Blog

USCIS Cancelled Planned Staff Furloughs, But Budgetary Challenges Remain

August 26, 2020

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) told Congress in May that it was running out of money and would need a $1.2 billion bailout to maintain its operations without major disruptions....

  • Blog

The Lie About Kamala Harris and Birthright Citizenship

August 18, 2020

People born in the United States are American citizens, regardless of what President Trump claims. Birthright citizenship—enshrined by the Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution—guarantees...

  • Blog

Updates to USCIS Policy Manual Give Broad Discretion to Issue More Denials

August 11, 2020

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has imposed new requirements on its officers for exercising discretion that will substantially increase time and expense for the agency and...

  • Blog

Why a Shorter Census Timeline Hurts Immigrant Communities

August 6, 2020

The Trump administration announced on August 3 plans to end the 2020 Census one month earlier than previously planned. The change has led to fears that immigrant and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and...

  • Blog

USCIS Fee Hikes Will Go Into Effect for These Applications

July 31, 2020

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released an advance copy of a final rule on July 31 that will impose significant fee increases across many facets of the legal immigration system...

  • Press Release

Fee Increase for Immigration Applications Is an Attack on Legal Immigration

July 31, 2020
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services—the government agency that administers the country's legal immigration system—is expected to announce Monday major fee hikes for many immigration-related applications and petitions. The increased fees will impact people applying for U.S. citizenship and asylum, as well as American businesses hiring or retaining employees vital to our country’s recovery from a global health and economic crisis.
  • Blog

Trump’s Public Charge Rule Is Blocked Again Over Impact of COVID-19

July 30, 2020

A federal judge in New York has once again put the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule on hold, but only for the duration of the COVID-19 national emergency. This rule, which went into...

  • Advocacy

Statement for the House Committee on Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship Hearing on "Oversight of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services"

July 29, 2020

The American Immigration Council submitted a written statement to the House Committee on Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship for a July 29, 2020 hearing on "Oversight of U....

Most Read

  • Publications
  • Blog Posts
  • Past:
  • Trending