Dissolution of the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization and Customs Service and the creation of separate agencies under the Department of Homeland Security.
The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1933 to 2003.
Referred to by some as former INS and by others as legacy INS, the agency ceased to exist under that name on March 1, 2003, when most of its functions were transferred to three new entities – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – within the newly created Department of Homeland Security, as part of a major government reorganization following the September 11 attacks of 2001.
The main mission of the INS was to inspect persons arriving at an official Port of Entry (POE), detecting and deterring illegal entry between the ports (by the Border Patrol, a component of the INS) and by sea, and conducting investigations of criminal and administrative violations of the Act. The INS also adjudicated applications for permanent residency ("green cards"), change of status, naturalization, and similar matters.
Eleven days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge was appointed as the first Director of the Office of Homeland Security in the White House. The office oversaw and coordinated a comprehensive national strategy to safeguard the country against terrorism and respond to any future attacks. It was under this department that after the devolvement of the INS, the three new agencies namely U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) came under.
The border functions of the INS, which included the Border Patrol and INS Inspectors, were combined