Why Still INS Instead of USCIS?

Why is the USCIS still being referred to as INS? This is a question that USCIS has as do many people associated with immigration. Especially since the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) ceased to exist from way back on March 1, 2003.

The INS was established on June 10, 1933 and over the years came under the purview of the Department of Justice in 1940. INS was responsible for enforcement and protection of the laws of naturalization and immigration. It handled both legal and illegal immigration and was in charge of detaining and deporting undocumented persons in the country. 

The INS was divided into three different agencies which came under the purview of the newly established Department of Homeland Security. The three agencies are - United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) , Customs Border and Protection (CBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). All that INS handled is now handled by the three different agenices. USCIS is in charge of immigration and naturalization; CBP takes care of border protection and ICE is responsible for investigations, intelligence and deportations.

Its been more than 8 years now and still people refer to the USCIS as INS. The general public give various reasons for this. Some say they were not aware of the change, others that the change was not communicated properly. But a majority of them attribute it to habit. INS is easier to say than USCIS.

People do not realize that INS has been abolished and in its place there are three different agencies. USCIS is the name that people need to be using when referring to the agency that handles US citizenship and immigration.

Talking about reasons, an interesting one is that TV shows and movies still use INS. That may be a big reason for the term still being in existence. We could also attribute it to the same reason that people use to say “green card” for permanent resident card, though the said card is no longer green in color.

INS is googled by a lot of people when they search for information on US citizenship and immigration. And Google does not say the term does not exist any longer. Instead it gives results as usual though the pages displayed are those of USCIS. And the Wikipedia link which has the information about when INS became USCIS.