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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.
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