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  4. Organizational Timeline

Organizational Timeline

Department Year Action
The Department of the Treasury Seal

1891

Office of Superintendent of Immigration created and placed in the Treasury Department.

1895

 

 

Office of Superintendent of Immigration upgraded to Bureau of Immigration.

Department of Commerce and Labor Seal

1903

Bureau of Immigration transferred to the newly created Department of Commerce and Labor.

1906

Federal Naturalization Service created and Bureau of Immigration became the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization.

Department of Labor Seal
1913

Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization divided into separate Bureaus – the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization – and placed in the new Department of Labor.

1924

U.S. Border Patrol created within the Bureau of Immigration.

1933

The Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization reunited into a single agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

Department of Justice Seal
1940

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) transferred from the Department of Labor to the Department of Justice.

Department of Homeland Security Seal
2003

The INS was abolished and its functions placed under three agencies – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) – within the newly created Department of Homeland Security.

 

Last Reviewed/Updated:
12/21/2022
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