KEY RESOURCES

Key Legislation

• 8 USC 1101(a)(42) ("refugee") Lexis | Westlaw | GPO | LII
• 8 USC 1158 (Asylum - REAL ID) Lexis | Westlaw | GPO | LII
• 8 CFR 208.1 Lexis | Westlaw | GPO

Key Connecticut Courtroom Resources

• Immigration Court Practice Manual EOIR | pdf
• Board of Immigration Appeals Practice Manual 
• Connecticut Rules of Professional Conduct  (begins on p.9 of the CT Practice Book, Part 1)
• FRAP and Local Rules of the 2nd Circuit; Interim Rules 25 and 32 (pdf)
• Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure (FRAP) - 28 U.S.C. Westlaw | Lexis

Key Immigration Decisions

• Gonzales v. Thomas, 547 U.S. 183, 126 S.Ct. 1613, 164 L.Ed.2d 358 (2006) - Court of Appeals must remand case to BIA for asylum eligibility determination on a previosly unconsidered claim for asylum based upon "'fear of persecution on account of membership in particular family" rather than considering the question de novo on petition for review of BIA's denial of application for asylum
• I.N.S. v. Orlando-Ventura, 537 U.S. 12, 123 S.Ct. 353, 154 L.Ed.2d 272 (2002) - judicial decision cannot be made instead of administrative decision on a basic matter entrusted by law to an administrative agency
• I.N.S. v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 112 S.Ct. 812, 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992) - addressing "well-founded fear of persecution on account of political opinion" - (1) guerrilla organization's attempt to conscript Guatemalan native into its military forces did not necessarily constitute “persecution on account of political opinion” and (2) alien who testified that he refused to join guerrillas because he was afraid that government would retaliate against him and his family failed to show eligibility for asylum
• I.N.S v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 107 S.Ct. 1207, 94 L.Ed.2d 434 (1987) - addressing "well-founded fear of persecution" - an alien seeking asylum does not need to prove that it is more likely than not that s/he will be persecuted in his or her own country

Immigration Glossary and Acronyms

• ILW's Immigration Glossary and Acronyms
• FindLaw's Immigration Glossary and Acronyms
• USCIS Glossary

IMMIGRATION STATUTES & REGULATIONS

• 8 USC 1101(a)(42) ("refugee" defined)  Lexis | Westlaw | GPO | LII
• 8 USC 1158 (REAL ID)  Lexis | Westlaw | GPO | LII
• REAL I.D. Act of 2005, Pub. L. 109-13, 119 Stat. 302 (2005) (pdf)
• 8 CFR 208.1  Lexis | Westlaw | GPO
• Child Status Protection Act, Pub. L. 107-208, 116 Stat. 927 (2002) (pdf)
  • AILA's wealth of resources on CSPA, including 2008 agency memo, BIA and federal court decisions, and more
  • Esparza and Mott's CSPA Review Checklist
  • American Immigration Law Foundation CSPA Practice Advisory
• INA / USC and USC / CFR Conversion Table
• Legislative history research: LexisNexis Congressional

U.S. IMMIGRATION AGENCY POLICIES, INFORMATION & ADMINISTRATIVE DECISIONS 

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

• Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) Organizational Chart (pdf)
• DHS U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) Organizational Chart (pdf)
• USCIS Home | Forms | Manuals | Laws, Regulations, Guides
• USCIS INA | Interpretations | BIA decisions | Policy Memos
• USCIS Asylum Resource Information Center (contains a few country reports)
• USCIS Status of your case
• USCIS InfoPass - schedule or cancel an appointment with USCIS; Customer Guide (see also, InfoPass.org)
• USCIS Affirmative Asylum process
  • Affirmative Asylum at a glance
  • Affirmative Asylum Procedures Manual (large pdf)
• USCIS Asylum Officer Basic Training Course (AOBTC) - Asylum Officers are required to complete, among other courses, a five-week  Asylum Officer Basic Training Course (AOBTC). The AOBTC includes international human rights law, asylum and refugee law, interviewing techniques, decision-making and decision-writing skills, effective country conditions research skills, and computer skills. In addition compulsory in-service training for all asylum officers is held weekly.
• US ICE Deportation Manual

U.S. Department of Justice

• USDOJ Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR)
• EOIR Virtual Law Library - AG/BIA & OCAHO decisions  | Lexis | Westlaw
• EOIR Hartford Immigration Court
• EOIR Immigration Court Practice Manual | pdf
• EOIR Immigration Judge Benchbook
• EOIR BIA Practice Manual - page also contins guide to oral argument and FAQ
• EOIR FOIA Information - Operating Policies and Procedures Memoranda (OPPM)
• EOIR Immigration Court and BIA Court telephonic Case Status Information
• USDOJ Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO) decisions
• INS Guidelines for Children Asylum Claims - 1998 memo to asylum and immigration officers

Administrative Decisions in Print

• Hein's Cumulative Index to Interim Precedent Decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals KF4812.7 .H45 – L4
• Administrative Decisions Under Immigration and Nationality Laws – I. & N. Dec. KF4812.A2 U54 – L4
• Patel’s Citations (index) KF4812.5 .P38 – L4
• Shephard's Immigration and Naturalization Citations KF4810.5 .S53 - L4

Refugee & Asylum Case Law Worldwide

• Refugee Law
  A collection of refugee decisions from the highest national courts of Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States; these cases have been selected and summarized by the Director of the Refugee Caselaw Site, Professor James Hathaway of the University of Michigan; since 2004, the collection has expanded to include decisions from other asylum countries, as well as the most important decisions of lower courts and tribunals in the core collection states
• Asylum Law
  The International Association f Refugee Law Judges (IARLJ) database contains numerous court decisions pertaining to asylum law from many different countries, primarily Germany (where the database was developed); search in multiple languages using established keywords or simply by country of decision; results in English and vernacular

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE 2nd CIRCUIT

2nd Circuit Materials

• Home
• FRAP and Local Rules of the 2nd Circuit
• Interim Rules 25 and 32 (pdf)
• 2nd Circuit Handbook (pdf)
• Opinions of the 2nd Circuit (search for "asylum" or "immigration")
• Use PACER to access documents from the dockets of pending and resolved matters
• Access cases and some briefs from
  • Westlaw - run a search in the fed2-all database and limit by using the topic (to) field restriction: to(24) and asylum /5 petition (topic 24 is aliens, immigration, and citizenship)
  • Lexis - start at Legal > Cases - U.S. > All Courts - By Circuit > 2nd Circuit - Federal & State Cases, Combined - Type: CORE-TERMS(immigration) and use Date Restriction: Past 10 years
• AILF's How to file a Petition for Review
• Research Review: Researching Federal Case Law (pdf)
  

TREATISES & PRACTICE MANUALS

Treatises

• Abele, Robert P. (2005). A User's Guide to the USA Patriot Act and Beyond - KF4850 .A93 - L4
• Aleinikoff, Thomas Alexander. (2008). Immigration and Citizenship: Process and Policy - KF4818 .A43 - L4
• Boswell, Richard A. (2006). Essentials of Immigration Law - KF4819 .B67 - L4
• Chen, Jim (2006). La Constitución de los Estados Unidos en Español: Un Servicio para el Pueblo Americano
• Epps, Brad, Johnson González, Bill and Valens, Keja. (2005). Passing Lines: Sexuality and Immigration - HQ76.3.U5 P37 - L4
• Farnam, Julie. (2005). U.S. Immigration Laws Under the Threat of Terrorism - KF4819 .F37X - L4
• Gordon, Mailman & Yale-Loehr (2008). Immigration Law and Procedure - KF4918 . M35 - L4 & Lexis*
• Martin, David A. and Schuck, Peter H. (2005). Immigration Stories - KF4818 .I46 - L4, Faculty Collection, Permanent Reserve
• Musalo, Karen. (2007). Refugee Law and Policy: A Comparative and International Approach - KF4836.A7 M87X - L4
• Weissbrodt, David S. (2005). Immigration Law and Procedure in a Nutshell - KF4819.3 .W4 - L4

Practice Manuals

• ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct
• Bell, Stephen C. and  Fragomen, Austen T. (2008). H-1B Handbook - KF4819 .F727 - L4 & Westlaw*
• Bhabha, Jacqueline. (2006). Seeking Asylum Alone: United States - KF4836 .B43 - L4
• Canter, Laurence A. and Siegel, Martha S. (2007). U.S. Immigration Made Easy - KF4819.6 .U2 - L4
• Divine, Robert C. (2006-2007). Immigration Practice - KF4819 .I4838 - L4
• Germain, Regina. (2007). AILA's Asylum Primer: A Practical Guide to U.S. Asylum Law and Procedure - KF4836 .G47 - L4
• Immigration Legislation Handbook. (2008) - KF4819 .I475 - L4
• Immigration Procedures Handbook. (2005) - KF4816 .I46 - L4
• Kurzban, Ira J. (2006-2007). Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook - KF4819.3 .K87 - L4, Reference, Permanent Reserve, LSO Library 
• Martin, David A. (2005). Asylum Case Law Sourcebook: Master Index and Case Abstracts for U.S. Court Decisions - KF4836.A58 M37 - L4
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (2007) Civics and Citizenship Toolkit: A Collection of Educational Resources For Immigrants - HS 8.2:C 49/2/TOOLKIT - Gov Docs
• Vail, Joseph A. (2006). Essentials of Removal and Relief: Representing Individuals in Immigration Proceedings - KF4819 .V35 - L4

*Note:  Both Lexis and Westlaw have distinct treatises, law reviews, and practice manuals which are not listed here

COUNTRY CONDITIONS RESEARCH

Government Reports

• U.S. State Department Reports 1993-1999 | 1999-current
  • Trafficking in Persons Reports
  • Religious Freedom Reports
• USCIS Asylum Resources - a few reports; note: the "country information page" referred to at the bottom of the USCIS page no longer exists
  • Profile Series
  • Perspective Reports
• U.K. Home Office Country Reports
  Current country reports from the UK's Country of Origin Information Service
• Canadian Country of Origin Research and National Documentation Packages
  Documents prepared by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada to assist in refugee protection cases in Canada
• Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) 
  Public database of official texts of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations; full-text in their original languages accompanied by a summary in English

United Nations & OAS Reports

• UN High Commissioner for Refugees 
  Search Refugee Magazine and RefWorld database, an amazing collection of reports relating to situations in countries of origin, policy documents and positions, and national and internationallegal frameworks
• Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 
  Go to "Countries" then "Human Right in the World" - select region and find valuable reports
• Human Rights Country Reports
  Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

NGO Reports

• Africa Yearbook
  Background information on the legal, social, political and economic state of African nations*
• Amnesty International 
  Search Human Rights Reports by country and Library archives for most reports, news releases and urgent actions published from 1996 to date
• Asylumlaw.org
  Created specifically to help those seeking asylum around the world - free registration
• Asylum and Refugee Resources
  From UMinnesota Human Rights Library
• Country Updates
  US Committee for Refugees & Immigrants
• Human Rights First Publications
  Include reports by region, country, topic
• Human Rights in China
  Books, reports, and issue briefs
• Human Rights Watch World Reports
  Also available in print from the F/I Office, L1
• International Center for Transnational Justice
  Assists countries pursuing accountability for past mass atrocity or human rights abuse; find press releases, letters, and other documents
• No Peace without Justice
  Has an FGM program among others
• Press Freedom Country Reports
• Secretariat of the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities (SADPD)
  Find some country reports and other materials on human rights for persons with disabilities in Africa
• U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
  Their World Refugee Survey has country reports

News, Newspapers & Journals

• African Union
  Documents, treaties, speeches, news
• AllAfrica.com
  News from a variety of African countries and sources*
• Ethnic News Watch
  US minority & ethnic newspapers, journals, magazines*
• Global Legal Monitor
  Online publication from the Law Library of Congress covering legal news and developments worldwide. It is updated frequently and draws on information from the Global Legal Information Network, official national legal publications, and reliable press sources
• Google
• Google Scholar
  Google results limited to scholarly articles with links to Yale full-text
• HAPI Online
  Index to articles on Latin America, Brazil, the Caribbean, the US-Mexico border region, and Latinos in the U.S.*
• Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
  Index to articles in foreign and international law journals*
• Online Newspapers
  via Yale University Library
• Orbis
  Yale University Library catalog - do Keyword searches in "Journals/Periodicals/Newspapers"
• Proquest
  Find full-text articles from many major U.S. newspapers - current and historical*
• Pubic Affairs Information Service (PAIS)
  Index to articles on economic, political, and social issues* 
• WorldCat
  Catalog of catalogs - search many library catalogs simultaneously*
• World News Connection
  Monitor non-U.S. media sources; material provided to the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) by the Open Source Center (OSC); analysts from OSC domestic and overseas bureaus monitor timely and pertinent open-source materials*

*denotes Yale access only

REFUGEE & ASYLUM RESEARCH

Reports & Articles

• Koulibaly v. Mukasey, No. 07-3743 (6th Cir. 2008)
  Court reversed BIA's affirmation of denial of asylum holding that the substantial evidence did not support the BIA’s adverse credibility finding because it was based on an Asylum Officer’s Assessment to Refer which lacked standard indicia of reliability.
• Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report for Congress
  Asylum Law & Female Genital Mutilation: Recent Developments
• Asylum Roulette
  NYT article on immigration court in NYC
• Asylum Judges
  NYT articles about asylum judges chosen by the Bush administration
• Other Serious Harm
  Article by Steven Heller
• Seeking Asylum Alone: Unaccompanied and Separated Children and Refugee Protection in the U.S.
  Article by Jacqueline Bhabha and Susan Schmidt
• Guidelines for Children Asylum Claims
  1998 USDOJ INS memo to asylum and immigration officers
• Reports on Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal
  Find the 2005 and 2007 reports from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
  • Government Accountability Office (GAO) Review of the Issues of USCRIF's 2005 Report
• UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
  UNHCR Publication: State of the World's Refugees

Resources

• Asylum Research Overview (pdf)
• Gender Asylum - Matter of Rodi Alvarado
  UC Hasting's compilation of documents in the Matter of R.A.
• Guide to International Refugee Law Resources on the Web
  LLRX research guide
• AILF's Practice Advisories
  Find assistance on how to proceed on many issues
• ASIL - EISIL's Human Rights database
  Primary documents, websites, research resources
• Forced Migration Online
  Refugee Studies Center, University of Oxford
• Country Conditions in Gender Asylum Cases
  Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, UC Hastings
• Asylumlaw.org
  Created specifically to help those seeking asylum around the world; includes National Immigrant Justice Center's Asylum Manual (pdf) for representing affirmative and in removal proceedings asylum seekers; to access sensitive information, you will need to register (free) 
• National Immigration Forum - Refugees and Asylum Resources
  Reports on asylum disparities, immigration judges, and other issues
• Human Rights Library - Asylum and Refugee Resources
  From the University of Minnesota
• ReliefWeb
  Natural disaster and emergency relief
• U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS & RESOURCES

• Africa Action
  Find a variety of documents and positions papers from the oldest organization in the U.S. working on African affairs whose mission is to change U.S.-Africa relations to promote political, economic and social justice in Africa
• African Human Rights Resource Center
  Find African human rights instruments and related documents from the UMinn Human Rights library
• The Secretariat of the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities (SADPD)
  Find some country reports and other materials on human rights for persons with disabilities in Africa
• Amnesty International 
  Search Human Rights Reports by country and Library archives for most reports, news releases and urgent actions published from 1996 to date
• Atrocities & Genocides
  Yale 2006 conference presentation of internet resources on genocide research in ten countries
• ASIL's EISIL database - Human Rights section 
  Great for finding primary documents, web sites, and reserach guides on a variety of topics in International law, including Human Rights issues
• Council of Europe
  COE has a human rights page with links to many COE divisions, including the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, the Commission against Racism and Intolerance, and the ECHR (where you can search for cases and European human rights treaties)
• Center for Gender & Refugee Studies
  From UC Hastings
• DIANA
  Yale - find full-text of core human rights decisions and documents
• Eyes on Darfur
  Amnesty International leverages the power of high-resolution satellite imagery to provide evidence of the atrocities being committed in Darfur
• For the Record
  Search for UN human rights documents by year (1997-2003) and by country
• Human Rights First  
• Human Rights Internet
  Portal to search for human rights organizations, documents, and other information available online
• Human Rights Library
  Minnesota's premier and comprehensive searchable collection of human rights documents and information, including treaties and links to organizations
• Human Rights Treaties
  Chronological list of human rights treaties from The Fletcher School at Tufts University
• Human Rights websites
  Yale - includes a list of links to human rights organizations
• HuriSearch
  Searches human rights websites
• Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
  Cases and reports of the Commission, headquartered in Washington DC, created in 1959 as an autonomous body of the OAS that provides recourse to individuals who have suffered human rights violations - English, Spanish, French and Portugese
• Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law
  Searchable library catalogue and articles database; full-text Yearbook of United Nations Law (Vol.1 1997-current); many full-text articles in the Electronic Journals Library
• National Immigration Forum
• UNHCR
  Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, established by UN General Assembly, is mandated to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide; hosts the powerful RefWorld database, a collection of reports relating to situations in countries of origin, policy documents and positions, and documents relating to international and national legal frameworks
• OHCHR
  Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; searchable database for human rights documents of Charter or treaty-based bodies
• ReliefWeb
  Serving the information needs of the humanitarian relief community
• South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission, Videotape Collection
  Yale Artemis Project - watch streaming video of news broadcasts assembled by journalist Max Du Preez, covering the history and activities of the Commission
• United Nations Human Rights Treaties
  Access to human rights documents and parties to treaties; search by state, category, or theme/subject matter
• United Nations Documents Centre*
• United States Institute of Peace
  An independent, nonpartisan, national institution established and funded by Congress whose goals are to help prevent and resolve violent international conflicts, promote post-conflict stability and development, and increase conflict management capacity, tools, and intellectual capital worldwide; includes a library with digital collections including peace agreements, terrorism/counter-terrorism resources, and afghan oral histories, as well as library catalog with full-text USIP Special Reports and Peaceworks

*denotes Yale access only

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE 9th CIRCUIT

9th Circuit Materials

• Home
• FRAP and Local Rules of the 9th Circuit
• Ninth Circuit Immigration Outline
• Recent Opinions of the 9th Circuit
• Use PACER to access documents from the dockets of pending and resolved matters
• Access cases and some briefs from
  • Westlaw - run a search in the fed9-all database and limit by using the topic (to) field restriction: to(24) and asylum /5 petition (topic 24 is aliens, immigration, and citizenship)
  • Lexis - start at Legal > Cases - U.S. > All Courts - By Circuit > 9th Circuit - Federal & State Cases, Combined - Type: CORE-TERMS(immigration) and use Date Restriction: Past 10 years
• AILF's How to file a Petition for Review
• Research Review: Researching Federal Case Law (pdf)