The INA still influences the field of American immigration law today. In order to enforce the quotas that had been established, the INA created the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The INS served as the federal agency that enforced these limits for the remainder of the 20th century (Immigration, n.d).

When Congress passed the INA, an alien was defined as any person lacking citizenship or status as a national of the United States. Different categories of aliens include resident and nonresident, immigrant and nonimmigrant, and documented and undocumented or illegal. "The terms documented and undocumented refer to whether an arriving alien has the proper records and identification for admission into the U.S. Having the proper records and identification typically requires the alien to possess a valid, unexpired passport and either a visa, border crossing identification card, permanent resident card, or a reentry permit" (Immigration, n.d).

The need to limit illegal immigration...
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