Guides: U.S. Immigration Law Research Starting Points: Books

Open Access Monograph Provided by Cambridge University Press

: Cambridge University Press publishes the series: Cambridge Asylum and Migration Studies. The book below is an open access title in this series.

Judging Refugees: Narrative and Oral Testimony in Refugee Status Determination by Anthea Vogl
Publication Date: 2024

Excerpt from this book's description: "To access state-based refugee protection regimes, refugee applicants must speak. They must narrate the basis of their claims in person, often before a single decision-maker, repeatedly and at length. In Judging Refugees Anthea Vogl investigates the black box of the refugee oral hearing and the politics of narrative within individualised processes for refugee status determination (RSD). Drawing on a rich archive of administrative oral hearings in Australia and Canada, Vogl sets global trends of diminished and fast-tracked RSD against the critical role played by the discretionary spaces of refugee decision-making, and the gate-keeping functions of credibility assessment."

Open Access Monographs Provided by University of California Press

University of California Press provides Luminos, an open access publishing program for monographs. Tip: The Luminos home screen search box (top right) yields available books and book chapters.

Banished Men: How Migrants Endure the Violence of Deportation by Abigail Andrews
Publication Date: 2023

Excerpt from book's description: "What becomes of men the US locks up and kicks out? From 2009 to 2020, the US deported more than five million people—over 90 percent of them men. Banished Men tells 186 of their stories."

Emergency in Transit: Witnessing Migration in the Colonial Present by Eleanor Paynter
Publication Date: 2024

Excerpt from this book's description: "Eleanor Paynter reformulates Europe’s so‑called migrant crisis from a sudden disaster to a site of contested witnessing, where competing narratives threaten, uphold, or reimagine migrant rights. Focusing on Italy, a crucial port of arrival, she draws together testimonials from ethnographic research alongside examples from film, media, literature, and visual art to interrogate the colonial, racial logics that inform emergency responses to migration well beyond international borders. Revealing how this emergency apparatus operates, and centering the experiences of Black Africans in Italy, Emergency in Transit posits a vision of mobility that refutes the notions of crisis so often imposed on those who cross the Mediterranean Sea."
On the Record: Papers, Immigration, and Legal Advocacy by Susan Bibler Coutin
Publication Date: 2025

Excerpt from this book's description: "Immigrant residents seeking legal status in the United States face a catch-22: the documents that they must present to immigration officials—bank records, paycheck stubs, and contracts in their own names—are often challenging for undocumented people to obtain. In this book, Susan Bibler Coutin analyzes how undocumented immigrants and the attorneys and paralegals who represent them attempt to surmount this and other documentary challenges."
Practicing Asylum: A Handbook for Expert Witnesses in Latin American Gender- and Sexuality-Based Asylum Cases by Kimberly Gauderman, ed.
Publication Date: 2023

Excerpt from this book's description: "This multidisciplinary volume brings together experienced expert witnesses and immigration attorneys to highlight best practices and strategies for giving expert testimony in asylum cases."
Undoing Nothing: Waiting for Asylum, Struggling for Relevance by Paolo Boccagni
Publication Date: 2025

Excerpt from this book's description: "What does everyday life look like for young men who flee to Europe, survive, and are then assigned temporary housing? Hypersurveillance or parallel normality, irrelevance or even nothingness? Based on a four-year ethnography, Undoing Nothing recounts the untold story of Italian asylum seekers' struggles to produce relevance—that is, to carve out meaning, control, and direction from their legal and existential liminality. "

Books in AILA Link, Lexis+, Westlaw & BLS Library

Up to 3 BLS students, faculty and administrators can access the BLS subscription to $ AILALink at one time. (In BLS Library's SARA catalog record, click: ACCESS ONLINE VERSION - (AILA).

Full-time law students: Benefits of free AILA law student membership include online access (in $ AILALink) to many legal books + conference materials published by AILA.

To view books in $ AILALink: Log in to $ AILALink. In Contents (on left side of home screen), click: AILA Books.

To search AILA Books: Click button: Search @ top of screen. Filter search by category: AILA Books. (Uncheck other categories.)

To view available conference publications (like 2025 AILA Midwinter Conference and Webcast Conference Handbook + Immigration Practice Pointers, 2025–26): Log in to $ AILALink, In Contents (on left side of home screen), click: AILA Conference Publications.

Books + conference publications in $ AILALink include:

Asylum Law:

AILA's Asylum Primer: A Practical Guide to U.S. Asylum Law and Procedure (9th ed. 2023)

Immigration Law Sourcebook:

Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook (19th ed. c2024) + AILA's Errata & Updates page includes some "corrections, clarifications and selected updates" to 19th ed. of Kurzban's.

Other Immigration Law Publications:

AILA's Immigration Law, Practice & Procedure Manual: A "Cookbook" of Essential Practice Materials (4th ed. 2025)

Essentials of Immigration Law (6th ed. 2024)

Immigration Practice Pointers: 2025-26 ed. + 2025 AILA Midwinter Conference and Webcast Conference Handbook + 23rd Annual AILA New York Chapter Immigration Law Symposium Conference Handbook (c2024) (in Contents, listed under: AILA Conference Publications)

Navigating the Fundamentals of Immigration Law: Guidance and Tips for Successful Practice: 2025-2026 ed. (in Contents, listed under: AILA Conference Publications)

Immigration Law, Special Topics:

AILA’s Focus on the Child Status Protection Act (4th ed. 2024)

Immigration Consequences of Criminal Activity: A Guide to Representing Foreign-born Defendants (10th ed. 2024)

Immigration Law and the Family (7th ed. 2023)

Litigating Immigration Cases in Federal Court (6th ed. 2022)

Provisional Waivers: A Practitioner’s Guide (3rd ed. 2020) - coming in Oct. 2025.: Link to 4th ed. 2025.

Public Charge and Affidavits of Support: A Practitioner’s Guide (3rd ed. 2024)

Representing Clients in Immigration Court (7th ed. 2024)

Trial Skills for Immigration Court: A Practical Guide to Effective Strategies and Tactics (c2024)

The Waivers Book (4th ed. 2022)

Immigration Law Toolboxes:

AILA’s Benefits Litigation Toolbox for Business Practitioners: Essential Samples and Resources for Practice in Federal District Court (2025 ed.) - excerpt from source description: "[P]rovides sample pleadings and motions for lawsuits that challenge business-related immigration benefit delays and denials in federal district courts. Samples for H-1B, L-1A, E-2, J-1, R-1, O-1B, EB-1A, EB-5, and PERM-related lawsuits are included."

AILA's FOIA Toolbox (c2022)

AILA's Immigration Litigation Toolbox, 7th Ed.: Sample Motions, Briefs, and Memos for Immigration Court, BIA, AAO, DHS, DOL, and Federal Courts (c2021)

AILA's Immigration Practice and Professionalism Toolbox: Essential Resources for Managing Your Immigration Practice (2018)

AILA’s U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization Law Toolbox (2021)

AILA's USMCA Toolbox (2022)

$ Lexis+ > Practice Center > Immigration > Top Sources: All Secondary Sources includes:

Immigration Law:

Immigration Law and Procedure

Comprehensive treatise, updated "regularly."

$ Westlaw Precision > Practice Area > Immigration > Immigration Resources: Secondary Sources includes:

Asylum Law:

Asylum Case Law Sourcebook (Sept. 2025 update)

Subject-arranged federal court case abstracts re. asylum issues. Abstracts link to texts of decisions.

Law of Asylum in the United States (Aug. 2025 update) by Deborah E. Anker

Immigration Law:

Immigration Procedures Handbook (2024-25 ed. w/ July 2025 update)

Aid to prepare immigration petitions, applications & forms.

Steel on Immigration Law (updated annually, Nov, 2024 update)

Immigration Law, Special Topics:

H-1 B Handbook (2025 ed.)

Immigration Employment Compliance Handbook (Oct. 2024 update)

Immigration Law and Business (June 2025 update)

Immigration Law and Crimes (June 2025 update)

Immigration Law and Defense (Sept. 2025 update)

Immigration Law & the Family (June 2025 update)

Labor Certification Handbook (Nov. 2024 update)

State Immigration Employment Compliance Handbook (Feb. 2025 update)

BLS Library also provides additional print and digital books to support Safe Harbor participants, including:

Asylum Law:

Adjudicating Refugee and Asylum Law Status: The Role of Witness, Expertise and Testimony (2014)

In the catalog record for this ebook, click: ACCESS ONLINE VERSION - (EBSCO) - REMOTE ACCESS RESTRICTED TO CURRENT BLS COMMUNITY

Essentials of Asylum Law (4th ed. 2018) by Immigrant Legal Resource Center staff attorneys

Judging Refugees: Narrative and Oral Testimony in Refugee Status Determination (c2024) - Excerpt from ebook's description: "A comprehensive legal analysis of systems of refugee status determination in Australia and Canada and the role of narrative studies and narrative theory in understanding international refugee law and its application."

In the catalog record for this ebook, click: ACCESS ONLINE VERSION - (CAMBRIDGE) - REMOTE ACCESS RESTRICTED TO CURRENT BLS COMMUNITY

Law of Asylum in the United States (2025) by Deborah E. Anker

Immigration Law:

Feminist Judgments: Immigration Law Opinions Rewritten (2024)

Hardship Waivers in Immigration Law: Overcoming Unlawful Presence, Fraud, and Certain Crimes (c2024) by Immigrant Legal Resource Center staff attorneys

Human Rights Issues in Migration and Border Management: Challenges and Perspectives (2024)

Immigration Consequences of Criminal Activity: A Guide to Representing Foreign-born Defendants (8th ed. 2019) - Note: newer 10th ed. (2024) now available in $ AILALink

Immigration Law and Procedure in a Nutshell (8th ed. 2023) (Study aid in BLS Library's 1st fl. Reserve collection)

Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook (17th ed. 2020) - Note: newer 19th ed. (2024) available in $ AILALink

On Transits and Transitions: Trans Migrants and U.S. Immigration Law (2022)

In the catalog record for this ebook, click: ACCESS ONLINE VERSION - (EBC) - ID AND PASSWORD REQUIRED - REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR FIRST TIME USE

Representing Immigrant Defendants in New York (6th ed. 2017)

Includes hypothetical NY case examples & practice tips.

To find more BLS Library print books and ebooks re. asylum law and immigration law:

Link to search BLS Library's SARA catalog

Subject search in SARA catalog: Asylum, right of (sorted by Publication.Copyright Date: Newest to Oldest)

Subject search in SARA catalog: Emigration and immigration law--United States (sorted by Publication/Copyright Date: Newest to Oldest)