Immigration Materials

Westlaw has recently added some new federal immigration databases and a couple of the existing federal immigration databases now have KeyCite coverage.

The new databases are the Immigration Law Judge Local Operating Procedures (FIM-LOP), the Detention and Deportation Officers' Field Manual (FIM-DDOFMN) and the Immigration Judge Benchbook (FIM-JBNCHBK). Several of the immigration databases start with FIM. This allows you to narrow your search to immigration materials within larger databases. For example, you can search for immigration materials in the U.S. Code Annotated (USCA), Congressional Record (CR), Code of Federal Regulations, (CFR), Federal Register (FR) by using FIM- as part of the database identifier. Placing FIM- before several other databases will result in immigration materials for cases (SCT: Supreme Court; CTA: Court of Appeals or DCT: District Courts), bills (BILLTXT) or legislative histories (LH). You would not need to use the word "immigration" in your search strategy since the database will already be limited to immigration materials.

Another recent expansion is KeyCite coverage (history and citing references) for decisions from the Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (FIM-BALCA) and the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (FIM-OCAHO). Coverage for the Board decisions, which hears appeals of denials of labor certification arising under section 212(a)(14) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, begins in 1987. Coverage for the FIM-OCAHO database begins in 1988 and contains immigration-related decisions from the OCAHO at the U.S. Department of Justice.