Research Guides: Immigration Law: Introduction to Immigration Law Research

Introduction

This Immigration Law research guide is intended to assist researchers with understanding the basic concepts of immigration law in the United States and direct them to helpful resources.

On the left, researchers can find an outline of this guide which includes an explanation of how the immigration system is structured under federal agencies, secondary sources that are useful introductions to immigration law topics, and primary sources consisting of statutes, regulations, and case law.

Explore the content of this guide by clicking on the boxes and the various links provided within them. Some of these resources are open access, while others require a Temple University login or Temple Law login.

General Immigration Collections

Both Westlaw and Lexis Advance have practice areas for Immigration Law, which includes searchable databases containing case law, legislation, regulations, administrative decisions, secondary sources, etc. These tools are only accessible via a Temple Law login.

If you have a Temple University login, you can access the following general immigration databases:

PLI Plus Immigration Law Practice Area PLI Plus from the Practising Law Institute, a national provider of continuing legal education (CLE) programs, includes an Immigration Law practice area comprised of treatises and CLE course handbooks and transcripts.
HeinOnline Immigration Law & Policy in the U.S. Collection HeinOnline's Immigration Law & Policy in the U.S. collection includes legislative histories, primary sources, treatises, scholarly articles, bibliographies, and more.
Oxford Handbooks Online Even though frequently covered through a comparative law lens, Oxford Handbooks Online include articles related to U.S. immigration and citizenship.

If you do not have a Temple Law login or a Temple University login, you can still utilize open access databases to find information on immigration law. Go to the Free and Low-Cost US Legal Research Tools section of the International L.L.M. and Graduate Studies Guide to find a list of useful platforms.

Additional Research Guides

Cornell Law Library: Immigration Law
Concise and clear guide with links to sources of primary immigration law, resources available on agency Web sites such as the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department of State, and Department of Labor, as well as links to decisions by administrative agencies.
Georgetown Law Library: Immigration Law (U.S.)
A comprehensive research guide explaining how to locate a variety of immigration law resources, including legislation and administrative materials as well as links to federal agencies and organizations involved in immigration matters.
Harvard Library: Immigration
More general in scope than the other law-focused research guides included here, this guide includes links to a wide range of sources of immigration news from around the world, regional perspectives on immigration, and a very useful list of sources of immigration data.
UCLA Law Library: Immigration Law
Detailed guide to researching immigration law in general. Of particular note is its thorough coverage of secondary sources for practitioners, resources on law of asylum, and self-help materials.
Loyola Law School: U.S. Immigration Law Research Guide
A detailed guide that provides a comprehensive understanding of immigration law and where to find relevant information. This guide is helpful because it provides background information for researchers who may not be as familiar with legal concepts. For example, there is a section under federal statutes discussing what they are. The guide also provides advice on how to Bluebook cite certain materials.

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