Our History

Federal oversight of immigration began in 1891, when Congress created the first Office of Immigration in the Treasury Department.

As immigration grew over the following decades, so did the duties of federal immigration employees. By 1906, lawmakers voted to reform the nation’s pathway to citizenship, and the Bureau of Immigration added oversight of naturalization to its responsibilities.

The next major transformation came in 1933, during the Great Depression, when the president ordered the consolidation of federal immigration and naturalization functions into the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). INS oversaw the immigration process, enforcement, and border patrol activities for 70 years until Congress passed the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

On March 1, 2003, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services assumed responsibility for the immigration service functions of the federal government. USCIS was founded to enhance the security and efficiency of national immigration services by focusing exclusively on the administration of benefit applications. The Homeland Security Act created Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection to oversee immigration enforcement and border security.