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IMMIGRATION COURT



U.S. immigration courts are administered under the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which, in turn, is part of the United States Department of Justice.



HISTORY



At first, the immigration courts were part of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which was part of the Department of Justice. This created a fundamental problem: the immigration courts and immigration judges were part of the INS, but so were the attorneys representing the United States government.



In part to remedy the perceived unfairness of having both the judge and the government attorneys as part of the INS, the EOIR was created on January 9, 1983. As a result, immigration judges and immigration courts were part of one agency (the EOIR), while the government attorneys were part of a completely different agency (the INS). However, both the EOIR and the INS remained part of the Department of Justice.

On November 25, 2002, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was established. With the establishment of the DHS, the final separation between the immigration courts and the government attorneys took effect: today, the immigration judges and immigration cou

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