6 U.S.C. § 251
Section 251 · Transfer of functions to Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 58 court decisions — leading case Clark Field Office Director Seattle Immigration and Customs Enforcement et al. v. Martinez (2005)
Most recently applied in N.S. v. Robert Dixon (June 2025)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
In accordance with subchapter XII (relating to transition provisions), there shall be transferred from the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization to the Secretary all functions performed under the following programs, and all personnel, assets, and liabilities pertaining to such programs, immediately before such transfer occurs:
The Border Patrol program.
The detention and removal program.
The intelligence program.
The investigations program.
The inspections program.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
2016—Pub. L. 114–125 substituted “Transfer of functions” for “Transfer of functions to Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security” in section catchline and “Secretary” for “Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security” in introductory provisions.