Citizenship and Immigration Services

(U.S. GOVERNMENT) successor to the investigations and processing arm of the former Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) of the USA. In 2003, the INS was dissolved and its enforcement arm transferred to the new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The INS had formerly been part of the Justice Department; the CIS is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The CIS is responsible for incarcerating hundreds of thousands of people each year, mostly for petty paperwork filing errors or traffic stops.