On March 1, 2017, the Secretary of Homeland Security, John F. Kelly, released a message to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees commemorating the fourteenth anniversary of the Department’s opening [PDF version]. The DHS was created in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to improve the security of the United States.
The creation of the DHS was one of the most significant events in the history of U.S. immigration law. Prior to the DHS, immigration enforcement and policy was conducted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which was a part of the Department of Justice (DOJ). With the creation of the DHS, the functions of the INS were moved to a new department under the leadership of the Secretary of Homeland Security, rather than the Attorney General.
Followers of our website may note that the INS is referenced in many of our articles that deal with administrative and judicial decisions predating the establishment of the DHS. Fortunately for the continuity of the immigration laws, those decisions and guidance carried over when the functions of immigration enforcement and policy were mostly moved to the DHS.
