How the September 11 attacks reshaped immigration policy and led to the creation of a new security apparatus
At midnight on February 28, 2003, the Immigration and Naturalization Service officially ceased to exist. After nearly seven decades of overseeing America’s immigration system, the agency was dissolved and reorganized into three new entities under the newly created Department of Homeland Security. The change represented the most dramatic restructuring of immigration enforcement since INS itself was formed in 1933.
Among the successor agencies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement would emerge as the enforcement arm, tasked with investigating immigration violations, conducting deportations, and protecting the nation from cross-border threats. The transformation was a direct response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which had exposed critical gaps in how the United States monitored foreign nationals within its borders.
The INS was established on June 10, 1933, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt consolidated the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization. The merger brought together two agencies that had operated separately since the late 1800s, when the federal government first began regulating immigration.
Initially housed within the Department of Labor, the INS reflected the era’s primary concern about immigration: protecting American workers and wages. Immigration was viewed largely as a labor and commerce issue, with the agency tasked with controlling the flow of workers entering the country.
That framework shifted dramatically in 1940, when President Roosevelt transferred the INS to the Department of Justice. With World War II raging in Europe and national security concerns mounting, immigration became a matter of law enforcement and security rather than labor policy. The move proved prophetic. During the war years, the INS oversaw the internment of thousands of individuals deemed enemy aliens, including approximately 32,000 people of Japanese, German, and Italian ancestry. Notably, two-thirds of those held in internment camps were American citizens.
Over the following decades, the INS grew into a massive bureaucracy employing 36,000 people. The agency wielded enormous power: it granted visas and green cards, naturalized new citizens, operated the Border Patrol, investigated immigration violations, and detained and deported individuals living in the country illegally. It worked closely with international organizations like the United Nations and coordinated with the State Department and Health and Human Services.
But the agency also developed a reputation for inefficiency. Applicants faced endless lines and processing delays. Paperwork was frequently lost. Critics argued that combining service functions like processing citizenship applications with enforcement duties created inherent conflicts and operational problems.
The Catalyst: September 11 and Its Aftermath
On September 11, 2001, 19 foreign nationals who had entered the United States on student or tourist visas carried out coordinated terrorist attacks that killed 2,977 people in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. The attacks exposed critical weaknesses in the immigration system. The hijackers had exploited visa processes that the INS had approved, revealing how immigration enforcement directly impacted national security.
The government’s response was swift and comprehensive. Congress passed the Homeland Security Act of 2002, creating an entirely new Cabinet-level department that would absorb 22 existing agencies and reorganize how the United States approached domestic security. The INS, with its dual mandate of service and enforcement, was viewed as incompatible with the post-9/11 security paradigm.
The solution was to split the agency’s functions along clear lines. Service activities would be separated from enforcement operations, with specialized agencies handling each mission.
The Three-Way Split
When the clock struck midnight on March 1, 2003, the INS was officially dissolved and its responsibilities distributed among three new agencies, all housed within the Department of Homeland Security:
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) took over the service functions, processing applications for citizenship, permanent residency, asylum, work visas, and family-based immigration. Eduardo Aguirre, a Houston resident and former vice chair of the Export-Import Bank, was named to lead the agency, initially called the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) became the enforcement arm, absorbing the investigative, detention, and deportation functions of the old INS, along with the customs enforcement duties previously handled by the U.S. Customs Service. Acting INS Commissioner Michael Garcia was appointed to lead the new agency. ICE’s mission was to protect the nation from cross-border crime and illegal immigration through customs enforcement, human and drug smuggling investigations, immigration law enforcement, and terrorism prevention.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) combined the border security functions of the INS Border Patrol with customs inspectors to create a unified agency responsible for securing America’s borders and ports of entry. CBP would manage the physical inspection of people and goods entering the country, working to prevent terrorists, illegal immigration, and illicit trade.
The reorganization was overseen by Asa Hutchinson, a former congressman from Arkansas and former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, who led the Border and Transportation Security Directorate.
ICE: A New Kind of Immigration Police
ICE represented a fundamental shift in immigration enforcement. Unlike the old INS, which had mixed service and enforcement roles, ICE was purely an investigative and enforcement agency. The new organization combined immigration investigations with customs enforcement, creating an agency with broad powers to combat cross-border threats.
The agency was structured around two primary operational divisions. Homeland Security Investigations conducts criminal investigations into customs violations, human trafficking, drug smuggling, financial crimes, and cybercrime. Enforcement and Removal Operations handles the detention and deportation of individuals who violate immigration laws.
ICE agents were granted significant authority, including the power to arrest individuals suspected of immigration violations and detain them for 48 hours without a warrant, or longer in emergency circumstances. The agency could initiate deportation proceedings and operate detention facilities across the country.
In its early years, ICE launched initiatives like Operation Community Shield in 2005, targeting transnational gangs through immigration enforcement powers. The agency also established specialized response teams to handle high-risk operations and began deploying officers internationally to investigate cross-border crimes.
Navigating the Transition
Officials promised that the reorganization would be seamless for the public. Acting INS Commissioner Michael Garcia assured the public that the transition would proceed smoothly. Existing INS forms and documents would remain valid. Local offices would stay in their current locations. The toll-free customer service number would continue to operate.
The transition brought promises of modernization: electronic filing of applications, biometric identification credentials, more rigorous background checks, high-tech systems to reduce backlogs at borders, and improved tracking of foreign students through a new database called SEVIS.
Mike Becraft, the INS’s acting deputy commissioner, emphasized that success would depend on embracing new technologies. The goal was to move beyond the bureaucratic inefficiencies that had plagued the old agency.
The dissolution of the INS and creation of ICE marked more than an administrative reshuffling. It represented a fundamental reimagining of how the United States approaches immigration in an age of global terrorism and transnational crime. By separating enforcement from services, the reorganization sought to create agencies that could focus on their distinct missions without the conflicting priorities that had hampered the INS.
The shift from the Department of Justice to the Department of Homeland Security also signaled a philosophical change. Immigration was no longer primarily a matter of labor policy or even criminal justice. It was now fundamentally a national security issue.
More than two decades after its creation, ICE remains a powerful and often controversial agency. Its enforcement activities have expanded dramatically, conducting millions of arrests and removals. The agency’s approach to immigration enforcement continues to evolve with changing political priorities and ongoing debates about border security, humanitarian concerns, and the rights of immigrants.
The legacy of the INS lives on in these successor agencies, which together process millions of immigration applications annually, secure thousands of miles of border, and enforce complex immigration laws affecting millions of people. The reorganization that began on March 1, 2003 fundamentally reshaped American immigration policy and enforcement in ways that continue to reverberate today.
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