Georgetown Law
Georgetown Law Library

CALS Asylum Case Research Guide

How to research asylum cases and track human rights conditions by country.

U.S. Immigration Law & Procedure

Our U.S. Immigration Legal Research Guide provides more information on this area of U.S. law.  Selected sources below are some of the more popular resources.

  • TRAC Immigration Try-It
    This resource has a wealth of immigration related data. Check out the Immigration Judges Reports to search by city and or judge to see grant rates, percentages of cases from particular countries and comparisons with national data.
  • Administrative Appeals Unit
    • Click on AAO Decisions pull down menu to access precedent decisions, non-precedent decisions, and adopted decisions. There is some basic search functionality. Also Available on Westlaw or Lexis with more sophisticated searching.
  • American Immigration Lawyers Association, Immigration Practice Pointers: Tips for Handling Complex Cases (electronic book)
    An excellent analysis of complex aspects of immigration law, with particular attention to recent developments.
  • Board of Immigration Appeals Decisions
    These rulings are available at the Executive Office for Immigration Review which includes a chart of board precedent decisions; an alphabetical subject index of those decisions; and copies of some (but not all) of the "indexed" Board decisions, with the annotation that these "indexed" decisions have not been published and accordingly have no value as precedent. The decisions were indexed to provide internal guidance, and are offered here to the public as a courtesy. Citation to unpublished decisions is disfavored by the Board. There is no index to the "indexed" decisions.  They are also on Westlaw and Lexis.
  • Gordon, Mailman and Yale-Loehr, Immigration Law and Procedure KF4819 .G62 1988 (updated) & on Lexis
    This multi-volume looseleaf service, updated periodically, is the most highly regarded general work on immigration law. You may find it particularly useful if your case takes you beyond the narrow confines of asylum law.
  • Interpreter Releases KF4700.A15 A54 &    Westlaw
    Weekly publication with latest developments in asylum law and practice.
  • Ira Kurzban, Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook Williams KF4819.3 .K87 2014.
    A quick, one-volume outline of immigration law, accurate but not as thorough as Gordon, Mailman and Yale-Loehr or, for the topics covered, the AILA Handbook.
  • Westlaw
    Click "Practice Areas" and select immigration to limit your searches to immigration materials.
  • Lexis
    Click "Practice Area or Industry, then Immigration.