Kingsfield · Research · Immigration

Which statute lists the grounds that make an alien inadmissible to the United States?

Published 2026-06-23 · U.S. federal law

8 U.S.C. § 1182 lists the classes of aliens who are inadmissible and therefore ineligible to receive visas or to be admitted to the United States.

The answer

The inadmissibility classes

8 U.S.C. § 1182(a) provides that aliens who fall within enumerated classes are inadmissible and are ineligible to receive visas and ineligible to be admitted to the United States. The classes include health-related grounds, criminal grounds, security grounds, and public-charge grounds.

Why the distinction matters

Inadmissibility governs aliens seeking admission or a visa, including applicants for adjustment of status. It is analytically separate from the deportability grounds that apply to aliens already admitted.

The judged input

What the AI drafted

Submitted to the judge

This is an excerpt from a draft immigration compliance memo — the kind of work product a lawyer generates with a legal-AI drafting tool, then has to stand behind. Kingsfield does not write it; it rules on the citations the model put in it. This draft cites two authorities; one of them is wrong.

AI draft excerpt — immigration compliance memo

The applicant has a prior conviction and now seeks an immigrant visa. Under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a), aliens within the enumerated classes are inadmissible and ineligible to receive visas or to be admitted to the United States. We advise that the criminal ground be analyzed under the inadmissibility framework rather than the deportability framework, because the applicant is seeking admission and has not yet been admitted. The grounds that render an applicant for admission inadmissible are not found at 8 U.S.C. § 1227.

The judge ruled on every citation as the draft used it — it accepted 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a) and rejected 8 U.S.C. § 1227. Here is why.

The verdict

How Kingsfield ruled

Ruled 2026-06-23

Each citation in the draft above was submitted to the Kingsfield judge and ruled against the primary-law corpus — Accept, Reject, or Inconclusive, per citation. These are live verdicts, not editorial. Each card shows the claim the draft made and the verbatim authority the verdict was rendered against.

Accept8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)

The draft claimed: Aliens who fall within the enumerated classes are inadmissible and are ineligible to receive visas and ineligible to be admitted to the United States.

“§ 1182(a) Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, aliens who are inadmissible under the following paragraphs are ineligible to receive visas and ineligible to be admitted to the United States:”

Cite found; proposition supported by the cited text.

Reject8 U.S.C. § 1227

The draft claimed: Section 1227 lists the classes of aliens seeking admission who are inadmissible and ineligible to receive visas.

Cite found, but the cited text does not support the claim. 8 U.S.C. 1227 lists the classes of aliens already admitted who are deportable; the grounds of inadmissibility for aliens seeking admission or a visa are at 8 U.S.C. 1182. Regenerate with the correct authority.

Run your own work through the judge

Kingsfield rules on every citation, quote, and proposition your AI produces, against the primary law we cover. Accept, Reject, or Inconclusive, per citation, with a signed Audit Capsule.

Connect the Judge See the architecture

This page is legal information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. The draft shown is an illustration of a typical AI answer; verdicts reflect the cited authority in the Kingsfield corpus as of the ruling date shown above.