Austin Kocher
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28 Posts
NEW DATA AVAILABLE ON IMMIGRANTS FACING DEPORTATION AT THE HOUSTON IMMIGRATION COURT

NEW DATA AVAILABLE ON IMMIGRANTS FACING DEPORTATION AT THE HOUSTON IMMIGRATION COURT

Austin Kocher – 15 Nov 2021

As Texas remains a frequent destination for migrants crossing the border into the United States, understanding the state’s immigration courts remains valuable to the news media and the public. New data from the Transactional Records Access Clearin...

ICE'S DATA QUALITY PROBLEM CONTINUES

ICE'S DATA QUALITY PROBLEM CONTINUES

Austin Kocher – 08 Oct 2021

As mandated by Congress, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is required to publish data on immigrant detention for the public. The agency releases this data as a spreadsheet about every two weeks on their website here.  But don’t trust it ...

ICE Detention Numbers Decline, But That’s Not the Whole Story

ICE Detention Numbers Decline, But That’s Not the Whole Story

Austin Kocher – 08 Oct 2021

The number of people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has continued to decline over the last several weeks and currently sits at 21,566 detainees according to data released on Thursday (9/23/2021). This is down considerably fr...

UNDERSTANDING ICE’S DETENTION NUMBERS

UNDERSTANDING ICE’S DETENTION NUMBERS

Austin Kocher – 15 Sep 2021

ICE releases detention statistics on a bi-weekly basis. For the past year, we at TRAC have been systematically collecting that data to provide further insight into the immigration system. One immigration detention statistic that can be confusing ...

SURVEY SAYS: 'NO LABELS' FAIL AT DATA ETHICS

SURVEY SAYS: 'NO LABELS' FAIL AT DATA ETHICS

Austin Kocher – 09 Sep 2021

For politicians attempting to justify controversial positions, the phrase “the American people” as a justification has become as ubiquitous as it is devoid of a specific referent. But to give the illusion of an objective constituency with specific...

IMMIGRANT DETENTION NUMBERS LEVEL OFF AFTER WEEKS OF GROWTH

IMMIGRANT DETENTION NUMBERS LEVEL OFF AFTER WEEKS OF GROWTH

Austin Kocher – 07 Sep 2021

According to data released by ICE and processed and stored by TRAC, the number of people being held in civil immigrant detention centers appears to have leveled off after several weeks of growth. The most recent numbers show that about 25,000 peo...

5 BOOKS ABOUT IMMIGRATION AND LABOR TO ADD TO YOUR READING LIST THIS LABOR DAY

5 BOOKS ABOUT IMMIGRATION AND LABOR TO ADD TO YOUR READING LIST THIS LABOR DAY

Austin Kocher – 06 Sep 2021

Labor Day, which became a holiday in 1894, celebrates the dignity of every worker and the legacy of the worker movement in the United States. But for many workers who help keep America running but do not have a pathway to legal immigration status,...

IMMIGRATION JUDGES IN CLEVELAND DENY ALMOST ALL ASYLUM CASES

IMMIGRATION JUDGES IN CLEVELAND DENY ALMOST ALL ASYLUM CASES

Austin Kocher – 30 Aug 2021

Even though immigration policy tends to focus on the U.S.-Mexico border asylum, it may come as a surprise that one of the most difficult places to obtain asylum is at the Cleveland immigration court in Ohio, far from the Southern border. I looked...

JUDGE RULES UNLAWFUL REENTRY UNCONSTITUTIONAL DUE TO RACIST HISTORY

JUDGE RULES UNLAWFUL REENTRY UNCONSTITUTIONAL DUE TO RACIST HISTORY

Austin Kocher – 21 Aug 2021

Immigrants who have a deportation order on their record and enter the United States again can be charged with what is called unlawful reentry, technically known as 8 USC 1326. This week, a judge in Nevada ruled that due to the racist anti-Latino h...

THE DATA ON HOW MANY AFGHAN SPECIAL IMMIGRANT VISAS ARE APPROVED EACH YEAR

THE DATA ON HOW MANY AFGHAN SPECIAL IMMIGRANT VISAS ARE APPROVED EACH YEAR

Austin Kocher – 17 Aug 2021

The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the sudden fall of the Afghan government to Taliban forces has renewed public debate about what the U.S. government should do to provide refuge for Afghan nationals who worked for the U.S. and fac...

AFGHAN IMMIGRANTS BARELY REPRESENTED IN THE US IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT SYSTEM

AFGHAN IMMIGRANTS BARELY REPRESENTED IN THE US IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT SYSTEM

Austin Kocher – 17 Aug 2021

The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the sudden fall of the Afghan government to Taliban forces have renewed public debate about the role of the U.S. immigration system in allowing Afghan nationals to come to the United States and ho...

PUTTING NEW US CENSUS BUREAU DATA IN CONTEXT

PUTTING NEW US CENSUS BUREAU DATA IN CONTEXT

Austin Kocher – 27 Apr 2021

As a geographer, one of the things that’s important to me is putting the United States in a global context whenever I can. So when the U.S. Census Bureau released updated population figures for states today, I decided to revisit one of the most co...

JANUARY 6 INSURRECTIONISTS FACE A VARIETY OF CHARGES: A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CAPITOL BREACH CASES

JANUARY 6 INSURRECTIONISTS FACE A VARIETY OF CHARGES: A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CAPITOL BREACH CASES

Austin Kocher – 13 Apr 2021

The Department of Justice is currently investigating and prosecuting individuals involved in the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, or what the U.S. Attorneys Office in the District of Columbia is calling the Capitol Breach Cases.  T...

TO MAKE LIVE AND LET DIE: HOW OUR IMMIGRATION SYSTEM TREATS MIGRANTS’ LIVES AS EXPENDABLE

TO MAKE LIVE AND LET DIE: HOW OUR IMMIGRATION SYSTEM TREATS MIGRANTS’ LIVES AS EXPENDABLE

Austin Kocher – 07 Feb 2021

Depending on who you are, your emotional response to talking about death and the migration system ranges somewhere between uncomfortable to re-traumatizing. If you belong somewhere on the “uncomfortable” side of the spectrum, I believe we have a r...

DATA REFUTES QANON CONSPIRACY THEORY THAT TRUMP FOUGHT AGAINST SEX TRAFFICKING RINGS

DATA REFUTES QANON CONSPIRACY THEORY THAT TRUMP FOUGHT AGAINST SEX TRAFFICKING RINGS

Austin Kocher – 25 Jan 2021

One of the QAnon conspiracy theories surrounding the Trump administration involved widely refuted claims that Democrats were running a child sex trafficking ring and that Donald Trump himself was working to disrupt this—a false belief that half of...

LOOKING FOR NON-PARTISAN, RELIABLE, AND UP-TO-DATE IMMIGRATION DATA? TRAC HAS WHAT YOU NEED.

LOOKING FOR NON-PARTISAN, RELIABLE, AND UP-TO-DATE IMMIGRATION DATA? TRAC HAS WHAT YOU NEED.

Austin Kocher – 22 Jan 2021

If you’re looking for up-to-date non-partisan immigration data, let me introduce you to our work at Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse—or TRAC—at Syracuse University. For the past 15 years, TRAC has been a valuable source of immigration d...

‘REPLACEMENT THEORY’ AND VIOLENCE AT THE CAPITOL

‘REPLACEMENT THEORY’ AND VIOLENCE AT THE CAPITOL

Austin Kocher – 13 Jan 2021

Conspiracy theories were a driving force behind right-wing violence at the Capitol last week. Here’s one conspiracy theory you might not have heard of. The term ‘conspiracy theory’ has worked its way into common discourse due mostly to our Snake ...

BEHIND THE REPORT: IMMIGRATION PROSECUTIONS IN FEDERAL COURT

BEHIND THE REPORT: IMMIGRATION PROSECUTIONS IN FEDERAL COURT

Austin Kocher – 01 Nov 2020

Yesterday, we at TRAC published a report on the number of prosecutions in federal court for key immigration-related charges. The three charges that I choose to look at are unlawful entry, unlawful reentry, and harboring. I would like to provide so...

TRUMP WAS WRONG TO CLAIM THAT JUST 1% OF IMMIGRANTS SHOW UP FOR HEARINGS. HERE’S WHY.

TRUMP WAS WRONG TO CLAIM THAT JUST 1% OF IMMIGRANTS SHOW UP FOR HEARINGS. HERE’S WHY.

Austin Kocher – 23 Oct 2020

In the final presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden on October 22, 2020, Trump claimed that when asylum seekers are allowed into the country for their hearings, “less than one percent of the people c...

7 BOOKS THAT WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND IMMIGRATION IN 2020

7 BOOKS THAT WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND IMMIGRATION IN 2020

Austin Kocher – 23 Aug 2020

Three in four Americans say that immigration is extremely important or very important in the 2020 election (Gallup poll). In the past few years, news outlets have reported on workplace immigration raids, family separation, exploitation among migra...

HOW OHIO RESPONDED TO THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP: NOTES FROM THE FIELD

HOW OHIO RESPONDED TO THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP: NOTES FROM THE FIELD

Austin Kocher – 18 Aug 2020

“Toledo: Stay safe! Border Patrol spotted on South and Broadway today!” Just days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 114 immigrant workers at a gardening center in Sandusky, Ohio, and 146 more at a meat plant in Salem,...

THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IS FLOODING THE IMMIGRATION COURTS WITH RECORD NUMBERS OF NEW DEPORTATION CASES

THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IS FLOODING THE IMMIGRATION COURTS WITH RECORD NUMBERS OF NEW DEPORTATION CASES

Austin Kocher – 17 Aug 2020

In FY 2019, more than 650,000 new removal proceedings were filed with immigration courts. The astonishing number of new cases in FY 2019 was the highest year on record by far, nearly doubling the number of new cases in FY 2018 (355,102), which was...

UNFORGETTING, THE STORY BEHIND A PHOTOGRAPH

UNFORGETTING, THE STORY BEHIND A PHOTOGRAPH

Austin Kocher – 14 Aug 2020

For journalists covering immigration enforcement, deportation statistics get all the attention. It’s understandable. Unlike most deportation data which is messy and jargon-ridden, deportation numbers feel concrete, even non-technical. One deportat...

UNFORGETTING, THE STORY BEHIND A PHOTOGRAPH

UNFORGETTING, THE STORY BEHIND A PHOTOGRAPH

Austin Kocher – 14 Aug 2020

We arrived in Dilley, Texas on a Sunday, all seven of us committed to working with refugees for a week at the South Texas Family Residential Facility. The name is a euphemism. It sounds like a boarding school, but critics argue that it has more i...

DOMINIQUE MORAN INTRODUCES YOU TO CARCERAL GEOGRAPHIES

DOMINIQUE MORAN INTRODUCES YOU TO CARCERAL GEOGRAPHIES

Austin Kocher – 12 Aug 2020

This review was originally published in The Canadian Geographer published by the Canadian Association of Geographers and is available here. Dominique Moran’s book, Carceral Geography: Spaces and Practices of Incarceration, is a significant contri...

IMMIGRATION JUDGES THAT DENY ASYLUM MAY BE MORE LIKELY TO GET PROMOTED

IMMIGRATION JUDGES THAT DENY ASYLUM MAY BE MORE LIKELY TO GET PROMOTED

Austin Kocher – 11 Aug 2020

Immigration judge appointments are political and the process appears to be more politicized every day. Even more political are appointments to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which oversees appeals and has the power to set precedent for hu...

TRUMP AND IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT: THE FIRST 100 DAYS

TRUMP AND IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT: THE FIRST 100 DAYS

Austin Kocher – 10 Aug 2020

Reposted from Society & Space. Edited by Austin Kocher, these essays hope to provide a useful snapshot of precisely the kinds of issues that are being raised by the Trump administration, while also understanding that the current context of im...

Society & Space Essays on First 100 Days of Trump

Society & Space Essays on First 100 Days of Trump

Austin Kocher – 10 Aug 2020

I’m glad to report that a series of essays that I organized and co-edited is now available online from Society & Space Open Site. Taken together, these essays provide a useful, timely, and very readable analysis of how immigration enforcement ...

book-review

2 Posts
7 BOOKS THAT WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND IMMIGRATION IN 2020

7 BOOKS THAT WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND IMMIGRATION IN 2020

Austin Kocher – 23 Aug 2020

Three in four Americans say that immigration is extremely important or very important in the 2020 election (Gallup poll). In the past few years, news outlets have reported on workplace immigration raids, family separation, exploitation among migra...

DOMINIQUE MORAN INTRODUCES YOU TO CARCERAL GEOGRAPHIES

DOMINIQUE MORAN INTRODUCES YOU TO CARCERAL GEOGRAPHIES

Austin Kocher – 12 Aug 2020

This review was originally published in The Canadian Geographer published by the Canadian Association of Geographers and is available here. Dominique Moran’s book, Carceral Geography: Spaces and Practices of Incarceration, is a significant contri...

carceral-geography

1 Posts
DOMINIQUE MORAN INTRODUCES YOU TO CARCERAL GEOGRAPHIES

DOMINIQUE MORAN INTRODUCES YOU TO CARCERAL GEOGRAPHIES

Austin Kocher – 12 Aug 2020

This review was originally published in The Canadian Geographer published by the Canadian Association of Geographers and is available here. Dominique Moran’s book, Carceral Geography: Spaces and Practices of Incarceration, is a significant contri...

donald-trump

4 Posts
JANUARY 6 INSURRECTIONISTS FACE A VARIETY OF CHARGES: A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CAPITOL BREACH CASES

JANUARY 6 INSURRECTIONISTS FACE A VARIETY OF CHARGES: A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CAPITOL BREACH CASES

Austin Kocher – 13 Apr 2021

The Department of Justice is currently investigating and prosecuting individuals involved in the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, or what the U.S. Attorneys Office in the District of Columbia is calling the Capitol Breach Cases.  T...

DATA REFUTES QANON CONSPIRACY THEORY THAT TRUMP FOUGHT AGAINST SEX TRAFFICKING RINGS

DATA REFUTES QANON CONSPIRACY THEORY THAT TRUMP FOUGHT AGAINST SEX TRAFFICKING RINGS

Austin Kocher – 25 Jan 2021

One of the QAnon conspiracy theories surrounding the Trump administration involved widely refuted claims that Democrats were running a child sex trafficking ring and that Donald Trump himself was working to disrupt this—a false belief that half of...

TRUMP AND IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT: THE FIRST 100 DAYS

TRUMP AND IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT: THE FIRST 100 DAYS

Austin Kocher – 10 Aug 2020

Reposted from Society & Space. Edited by Austin Kocher, these essays hope to provide a useful snapshot of precisely the kinds of issues that are being raised by the Trump administration, while also understanding that the current context of im...

Society & Space Essays on First 100 Days of Trump

Society & Space Essays on First 100 Days of Trump

Austin Kocher – 10 Aug 2020

I’m glad to report that a series of essays that I organized and co-edited is now available online from Society & Space Open Site. Taken together, these essays provide a useful, timely, and very readable analysis of how immigration enforcement ...

federal-prosecutions

2 Posts
JANUARY 6 INSURRECTIONISTS FACE A VARIETY OF CHARGES: A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CAPITOL BREACH CASES

JANUARY 6 INSURRECTIONISTS FACE A VARIETY OF CHARGES: A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CAPITOL BREACH CASES

Austin Kocher – 13 Apr 2021

The Department of Justice is currently investigating and prosecuting individuals involved in the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, or what the U.S. Attorneys Office in the District of Columbia is calling the Capitol Breach Cases.  T...

DATA REFUTES QANON CONSPIRACY THEORY THAT TRUMP FOUGHT AGAINST SEX TRAFFICKING RINGS

DATA REFUTES QANON CONSPIRACY THEORY THAT TRUMP FOUGHT AGAINST SEX TRAFFICKING RINGS

Austin Kocher – 25 Jan 2021

One of the QAnon conspiracy theories surrounding the Trump administration involved widely refuted claims that Democrats were running a child sex trafficking ring and that Donald Trump himself was working to disrupt this—a false belief that half of...

immigrant-detention

1 Posts
UNFORGETTING, THE STORY BEHIND A PHOTOGRAPH

UNFORGETTING, THE STORY BEHIND A PHOTOGRAPH

Austin Kocher – 14 Aug 2020

We arrived in Dilley, Texas on a Sunday, all seven of us committed to working with refugees for a week at the South Texas Family Residential Facility. The name is a euphemism. It sounds like a boarding school, but critics argue that it has more i...

immigration-courts

6 Posts
LOOKING FOR NON-PARTISAN, RELIABLE, AND UP-TO-DATE IMMIGRATION DATA? TRAC HAS WHAT YOU NEED.

LOOKING FOR NON-PARTISAN, RELIABLE, AND UP-TO-DATE IMMIGRATION DATA? TRAC HAS WHAT YOU NEED.

Austin Kocher – 22 Jan 2021

If you’re looking for up-to-date non-partisan immigration data, let me introduce you to our work at Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse—or TRAC—at Syracuse University. For the past 15 years, TRAC has been a valuable source of immigration d...

TRUMP WAS WRONG TO CLAIM THAT JUST 1% OF IMMIGRANTS SHOW UP FOR HEARINGS. HERE’S WHY.

TRUMP WAS WRONG TO CLAIM THAT JUST 1% OF IMMIGRANTS SHOW UP FOR HEARINGS. HERE’S WHY.

Austin Kocher – 23 Oct 2020

In the final presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden on October 22, 2020, Trump claimed that when asylum seekers are allowed into the country for their hearings, “less than one percent of the people c...

HOW OHIO RESPONDED TO THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP: NOTES FROM THE FIELD

HOW OHIO RESPONDED TO THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP: NOTES FROM THE FIELD

Austin Kocher – 18 Aug 2020

“Toledo: Stay safe! Border Patrol spotted on South and Broadway today!” Just days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 114 immigrant workers at a gardening center in Sandusky, Ohio, and 146 more at a meat plant in Salem,...

THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IS FLOODING THE IMMIGRATION COURTS WITH RECORD NUMBERS OF NEW DEPORTATION CASES

THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IS FLOODING THE IMMIGRATION COURTS WITH RECORD NUMBERS OF NEW DEPORTATION CASES

Austin Kocher – 17 Aug 2020

In FY 2019, more than 650,000 new removal proceedings were filed with immigration courts. The astonishing number of new cases in FY 2019 was the highest year on record by far, nearly doubling the number of new cases in FY 2018 (355,102), which was...

UNFORGETTING, THE STORY BEHIND A PHOTOGRAPH

UNFORGETTING, THE STORY BEHIND A PHOTOGRAPH

Austin Kocher – 14 Aug 2020

For journalists covering immigration enforcement, deportation statistics get all the attention. It’s understandable. Unlike most deportation data which is messy and jargon-ridden, deportation numbers feel concrete, even non-technical. One deportat...

IMMIGRATION JUDGES THAT DENY ASYLUM MAY BE MORE LIKELY TO GET PROMOTED

IMMIGRATION JUDGES THAT DENY ASYLUM MAY BE MORE LIKELY TO GET PROMOTED

Austin Kocher – 11 Aug 2020

Immigration judge appointments are political and the process appears to be more politicized every day. Even more political are appointments to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which oversees appeals and has the power to set precedent for hu...

immigration-data

7 Posts
PUTTING NEW US CENSUS BUREAU DATA IN CONTEXT

PUTTING NEW US CENSUS BUREAU DATA IN CONTEXT

Austin Kocher – 27 Apr 2021

As a geographer, one of the things that’s important to me is putting the United States in a global context whenever I can. So when the U.S. Census Bureau released updated population figures for states today, I decided to revisit one of the most co...

LOOKING FOR NON-PARTISAN, RELIABLE, AND UP-TO-DATE IMMIGRATION DATA? TRAC HAS WHAT YOU NEED.

LOOKING FOR NON-PARTISAN, RELIABLE, AND UP-TO-DATE IMMIGRATION DATA? TRAC HAS WHAT YOU NEED.

Austin Kocher – 22 Jan 2021

If you’re looking for up-to-date non-partisan immigration data, let me introduce you to our work at Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse—or TRAC—at Syracuse University. For the past 15 years, TRAC has been a valuable source of immigration d...

TRUMP WAS WRONG TO CLAIM THAT JUST 1% OF IMMIGRANTS SHOW UP FOR HEARINGS. HERE’S WHY.

TRUMP WAS WRONG TO CLAIM THAT JUST 1% OF IMMIGRANTS SHOW UP FOR HEARINGS. HERE’S WHY.

Austin Kocher – 23 Oct 2020

In the final presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden on October 22, 2020, Trump claimed that when asylum seekers are allowed into the country for their hearings, “less than one percent of the people c...

HOW OHIO RESPONDED TO THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP: NOTES FROM THE FIELD

HOW OHIO RESPONDED TO THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP: NOTES FROM THE FIELD

Austin Kocher – 18 Aug 2020

“Toledo: Stay safe! Border Patrol spotted on South and Broadway today!” Just days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 114 immigrant workers at a gardening center in Sandusky, Ohio, and 146 more at a meat plant in Salem,...

THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IS FLOODING THE IMMIGRATION COURTS WITH RECORD NUMBERS OF NEW DEPORTATION CASES

THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IS FLOODING THE IMMIGRATION COURTS WITH RECORD NUMBERS OF NEW DEPORTATION CASES

Austin Kocher – 17 Aug 2020

In FY 2019, more than 650,000 new removal proceedings were filed with immigration courts. The astonishing number of new cases in FY 2019 was the highest year on record by far, nearly doubling the number of new cases in FY 2018 (355,102), which was...

UNFORGETTING, THE STORY BEHIND A PHOTOGRAPH

UNFORGETTING, THE STORY BEHIND A PHOTOGRAPH

Austin Kocher – 14 Aug 2020

For journalists covering immigration enforcement, deportation statistics get all the attention. It’s understandable. Unlike most deportation data which is messy and jargon-ridden, deportation numbers feel concrete, even non-technical. One deportat...

IMMIGRATION JUDGES THAT DENY ASYLUM MAY BE MORE LIKELY TO GET PROMOTED

IMMIGRATION JUDGES THAT DENY ASYLUM MAY BE MORE LIKELY TO GET PROMOTED

Austin Kocher – 11 Aug 2020

Immigration judge appointments are political and the process appears to be more politicized every day. Even more political are appointments to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which oversees appeals and has the power to set precedent for hu...

immigration-enforcement

8 Posts
TO MAKE LIVE AND LET DIE: HOW OUR IMMIGRATION SYSTEM TREATS MIGRANTS’ LIVES AS EXPENDABLE

TO MAKE LIVE AND LET DIE: HOW OUR IMMIGRATION SYSTEM TREATS MIGRANTS’ LIVES AS EXPENDABLE

Austin Kocher – 07 Feb 2021

Depending on who you are, your emotional response to talking about death and the migration system ranges somewhere between uncomfortable to re-traumatizing. If you belong somewhere on the “uncomfortable” side of the spectrum, I believe we have a r...

LOOKING FOR NON-PARTISAN, RELIABLE, AND UP-TO-DATE IMMIGRATION DATA? TRAC HAS WHAT YOU NEED.

LOOKING FOR NON-PARTISAN, RELIABLE, AND UP-TO-DATE IMMIGRATION DATA? TRAC HAS WHAT YOU NEED.

Austin Kocher – 22 Jan 2021

If you’re looking for up-to-date non-partisan immigration data, let me introduce you to our work at Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse—or TRAC—at Syracuse University. For the past 15 years, TRAC has been a valuable source of immigration d...

7 BOOKS THAT WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND IMMIGRATION IN 2020

7 BOOKS THAT WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND IMMIGRATION IN 2020

Austin Kocher – 23 Aug 2020

Three in four Americans say that immigration is extremely important or very important in the 2020 election (Gallup poll). In the past few years, news outlets have reported on workplace immigration raids, family separation, exploitation among migra...

HOW OHIO RESPONDED TO THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP: NOTES FROM THE FIELD

HOW OHIO RESPONDED TO THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP: NOTES FROM THE FIELD

Austin Kocher – 18 Aug 2020

“Toledo: Stay safe! Border Patrol spotted on South and Broadway today!” Just days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 114 immigrant workers at a gardening center in Sandusky, Ohio, and 146 more at a meat plant in Salem,...

THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IS FLOODING THE IMMIGRATION COURTS WITH RECORD NUMBERS OF NEW DEPORTATION CASES

THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IS FLOODING THE IMMIGRATION COURTS WITH RECORD NUMBERS OF NEW DEPORTATION CASES

Austin Kocher – 17 Aug 2020

In FY 2019, more than 650,000 new removal proceedings were filed with immigration courts. The astonishing number of new cases in FY 2019 was the highest year on record by far, nearly doubling the number of new cases in FY 2018 (355,102), which was...

UNFORGETTING, THE STORY BEHIND A PHOTOGRAPH

UNFORGETTING, THE STORY BEHIND A PHOTOGRAPH

Austin Kocher – 14 Aug 2020

For journalists covering immigration enforcement, deportation statistics get all the attention. It’s understandable. Unlike most deportation data which is messy and jargon-ridden, deportation numbers feel concrete, even non-technical. One deportat...

TRUMP AND IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT: THE FIRST 100 DAYS

TRUMP AND IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT: THE FIRST 100 DAYS

Austin Kocher – 10 Aug 2020

Reposted from Society & Space. Edited by Austin Kocher, these essays hope to provide a useful snapshot of precisely the kinds of issues that are being raised by the Trump administration, while also understanding that the current context of im...

Society & Space Essays on First 100 Days of Trump

Society & Space Essays on First 100 Days of Trump

Austin Kocher – 10 Aug 2020

I’m glad to report that a series of essays that I organized and co-edited is now available online from Society & Space Open Site. Taken together, these essays provide a useful, timely, and very readable analysis of how immigration enforcement ...

immigration-judges

1 Posts
IMMIGRATION JUDGES THAT DENY ASYLUM MAY BE MORE LIKELY TO GET PROMOTED

IMMIGRATION JUDGES THAT DENY ASYLUM MAY BE MORE LIKELY TO GET PROMOTED

Austin Kocher – 11 Aug 2020

Immigration judge appointments are political and the process appears to be more politicized every day. Even more political are appointments to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which oversees appeals and has the power to set precedent for hu...

immigration-politics

5 Posts
TO MAKE LIVE AND LET DIE: HOW OUR IMMIGRATION SYSTEM TREATS MIGRANTS’ LIVES AS EXPENDABLE

TO MAKE LIVE AND LET DIE: HOW OUR IMMIGRATION SYSTEM TREATS MIGRANTS’ LIVES AS EXPENDABLE

Austin Kocher – 07 Feb 2021

Depending on who you are, your emotional response to talking about death and the migration system ranges somewhere between uncomfortable to re-traumatizing. If you belong somewhere on the “uncomfortable” side of the spectrum, I believe we have a r...

‘REPLACEMENT THEORY’ AND VIOLENCE AT THE CAPITOL

‘REPLACEMENT THEORY’ AND VIOLENCE AT THE CAPITOL

Austin Kocher – 13 Jan 2021

Conspiracy theories were a driving force behind right-wing violence at the Capitol last week. Here’s one conspiracy theory you might not have heard of. The term ‘conspiracy theory’ has worked its way into common discourse due mostly to our Snake ...

7 BOOKS THAT WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND IMMIGRATION IN 2020

7 BOOKS THAT WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND IMMIGRATION IN 2020

Austin Kocher – 23 Aug 2020

Three in four Americans say that immigration is extremely important or very important in the 2020 election (Gallup poll). In the past few years, news outlets have reported on workplace immigration raids, family separation, exploitation among migra...

TRUMP AND IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT: THE FIRST 100 DAYS

TRUMP AND IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT: THE FIRST 100 DAYS

Austin Kocher – 10 Aug 2020

Reposted from Society & Space. Edited by Austin Kocher, these essays hope to provide a useful snapshot of precisely the kinds of issues that are being raised by the Trump administration, while also understanding that the current context of im...

Society & Space Essays on First 100 Days of Trump

Society & Space Essays on First 100 Days of Trump

Austin Kocher – 10 Aug 2020

I’m glad to report that a series of essays that I organized and co-edited is now available online from Society & Space Open Site. Taken together, these essays provide a useful, timely, and very readable analysis of how immigration enforcement ...

mass-incarceration

1 Posts
DOMINIQUE MORAN INTRODUCES YOU TO CARCERAL GEOGRAPHIES

DOMINIQUE MORAN INTRODUCES YOU TO CARCERAL GEOGRAPHIES

Austin Kocher – 12 Aug 2020

This review was originally published in The Canadian Geographer published by the Canadian Association of Geographers and is available here. Dominique Moran’s book, Carceral Geography: Spaces and Practices of Incarceration, is a significant contri...

photography

1 Posts
UNFORGETTING, THE STORY BEHIND A PHOTOGRAPH

UNFORGETTING, THE STORY BEHIND A PHOTOGRAPH

Austin Kocher – 14 Aug 2020

We arrived in Dilley, Texas on a Sunday, all seven of us committed to working with refugees for a week at the South Texas Family Residential Facility. The name is a euphemism. It sounds like a boarding school, but critics argue that it has more i...

refugees-and-asylum

3 Posts
TO MAKE LIVE AND LET DIE: HOW OUR IMMIGRATION SYSTEM TREATS MIGRANTS’ LIVES AS EXPENDABLE

TO MAKE LIVE AND LET DIE: HOW OUR IMMIGRATION SYSTEM TREATS MIGRANTS’ LIVES AS EXPENDABLE

Austin Kocher – 07 Feb 2021

Depending on who you are, your emotional response to talking about death and the migration system ranges somewhere between uncomfortable to re-traumatizing. If you belong somewhere on the “uncomfortable” side of the spectrum, I believe we have a r...

TRUMP WAS WRONG TO CLAIM THAT JUST 1% OF IMMIGRANTS SHOW UP FOR HEARINGS. HERE’S WHY.

TRUMP WAS WRONG TO CLAIM THAT JUST 1% OF IMMIGRANTS SHOW UP FOR HEARINGS. HERE’S WHY.

Austin Kocher – 23 Oct 2020

In the final presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden on October 22, 2020, Trump claimed that when asylum seekers are allowed into the country for their hearings, “less than one percent of the people c...

UNFORGETTING, THE STORY BEHIND A PHOTOGRAPH

UNFORGETTING, THE STORY BEHIND A PHOTOGRAPH

Austin Kocher – 14 Aug 2020

We arrived in Dilley, Texas on a Sunday, all seven of us committed to working with refugees for a week at the South Texas Family Residential Facility. The name is a euphemism. It sounds like a boarding school, but critics argue that it has more i...

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