Government agencies and commissions

Based on the constitutional principles of separation of powers and bicameralism, the Chadha decision prohibited legislation authorizing one house of Congress fromoverriding a decision made by the executive branch.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service was long the primary federal agency responsible for the protection and enforcement of laws guiding the immigration and naturalization processes.

This law created the Dillingham Commission to collect data used in future immigration laws, further narrowed Asian immigration, limited Muslim immigration, and expanded the definition of undesirable women immigrants.

Formed in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, this well-funded cabinet department of the federal government has exemplified a governmental response to improve the coordination and effectiveness of efforts to combat the ongoing war against terrorism.

The first official immigration station and long the busiest in the United States, Ellis Island was the entry point for more than 12 million newcomers.

The forty-one volumes of statistical material on immigration eventually published by the Dillingham Commission contained a wealth of information that provided support for limiting immigration, thereby helping lead to passage of the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 and the Immigration Act of 1924.

Since 1875, Congress has played the major role in determining U.S. immigration law and policy.

The U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform was the most far-reaching body charged with examining immigration legislation during the last decade of the twentieth century.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is a federal commission tasked with protecting the civil rights of all people residing in the United States.

The United States Coast Guard is a unique multimission, maritime agency categorized as one of five branches of the U.S. armed forces.

The mandate given to this federal bureau was to establish immigration services, policies, and priorities that preserve the United States as a nation of immigrants by ensuring that no one is admitted into the country who may threaten public safety.

Under the U.S. Constitution and laws of the United States, the status of citizenship entitles possessors, whether native born or naturalized, to all established civil rights and also includes the duty of rendering allegiance to the country.

Mandated by the U.S. Constitution, the decennial censuses were originally undertaken for the purpose of apportioning congressional seats, electoral votes in presidential elections, and funding of government programs among the states.

The Bureau of Immigration was the first federal government entity to standardize immigration operations in the United States, and it enforced legislation passed by the U.S. Congress and reported on the status of immigrants entering the country.