The deportation regime is at full speed and not yet at full capacity. We need humanities-focused ways to help us decode how these conditions strip away immigrants' and citizens' sense of mobility at the level of body. Reposting article I published earlier this year www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
![A UA student was reportedly detained by the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement early Tuesday morning.
Alireza Doroudi, a doctoral student from Iran studying mechanical engineering, was reportedly arrested by ICE officers at around 5 a.m. at his home on Tuesday.
According to a message sent in a group chat that included Iranian students Tuesday, Doroudi entered the U.S. on an F-1 student visa issued by the U.S. Embassy in Oman in January 2023, after clearing all immigration checks. The message said Dourodi had his visa revoked six months after his arrival in the U.S.
“After receiving the revocation notice, Alireza immediately contacted ISSS [International Student and Scholar Services] at the University of Alabama,” the message said. “ISSS replied with confidence, stating that his case was not unusual or problematic and that he could remain in the U.S. legally as long as he maintained his student status.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:tgw3d4hvw3x5ijrxax7lg26u/bafkreidsfnjqlyawobeqhlhbe7uqhkjii76bzkcs3ew7ac7wtwruz4tiw4)
A UA student was reportedly detained by the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement early Tuesday morning. Alireza Doroudi, a doctoral student from Iran studying mechanical engineering, was reportedly arrested by ICE officers at around 5 a.m. at his home on Tuesday. According to a message sent in a group chat that included Iranian students Tuesday, Doroudi entered the U.S. on an F-1 student visa issued by the U.S. Embassy in Oman in January 2023, after clearing all immigration checks. The message said Dourodi had his visa revoked six months after his arrival in the U.S. “After receiving the revocation notice, Alireza immediately contacted ISSS [International Student and Scholar Services] at the University of Alabama,” the message said. “ISSS replied with confidence, stating that his case was not unusual or problematic and that he could remain in the U.S. legally as long as he maintained his student status.”
ICE has abducted an Iranian mechanical engineering doctoral student at the University of Alabama.
thecrimsonwhite.com/120415/news/...
Why are we now using the words “abducting,” “kidnapping,” and “disappearing” for ICE arrests of educated English speakers? I’m glad to see the brutality called out, but I wish there were the same outrage when Mexican laborers are detained at home in front of their kids.
This isn't how gov't is supposed to work: The acting commissioner of Social Security admitted “I was ticked at the governor of Maine for not being real cordial to the president,” so I ended a program in Maine. www.pressherald.com/2025/03/25/s...
DHS is suspending green card applications for people who are already living in the United States with asylee or refugee status! These applications have insane wait times already, and Trump is freezing them solely to make it easier to deny the applications and deport them for spurious reasons.
Here is the main point I tried to make in my opening statement.
Commit the crime. Cover it up. No accountability.
Alternative Ways of Seeing Immigration: Visual, Literary, and Creative Approaches
These seven books draw you into the global story of human migration using artistic styles you won't normally find in traditional non-fiction books and articles.
austinkocher.substack.com/p/alternativ...
Immigrants must be denied grievance to be made deportable.
Your Introduction to Mahmoud Khalil’s Deportation Case and the Legal Battle Ahead
On the fundamentals of Khalil’s case, including the core legal and ethical questions, why attorneys are already calling it "sloppy", and why this is really about Marco Rubio.
austinkocher.substack.com/p/your-intro...
Deportation practices seen from a dance studies lens gives us new language to make sense of the persistence of what is going on now and how performance can be used as a force to change the order of things. #immigration #undocusky #theater www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
More immigrants will die in US custody on Trump's watch, but the Trump administration could try to hide this information from the public. Here's how.
www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
There's a lot of confusion swirling so it may help to explain that the below is actually fairly normal following an ICE arrest. ICE often transfers people to the deep South where some of the largest detention centers are located, and the ICE Detainee Locator system can take up to 24 hours to update.
h/t to Austin for identifying this mistake in ICE's statistical reporting.
In ICE's most recent update, it looks like two columns--one for ICE arrests and one for CBP arrests--were swapped.
*sigh* this is, of course, against a great many tax privacy laws, some of which were passed by Republicans after they got mad Trump's taxes got leaked
The largest growth in immigrants in detention during the first month of the Trump administration, based on ICE's own snapshot data, comes from immigrants with no criminal convictions or charges. To understand the data and ICE's data errors this week...
I’d been looking at denatz cases too, but not as closely as you as not my specialty. I wondered if we’d see anything similar to what you found during this term. I hope it’s an anomaly and not the norm.
In case you missed this webinar, The Historical Contours of Migration and Forced Removal, please find the recording on our website within the next 48 hours: www.latinxproject.nyu.edu/20242025/the...
Important to note that the US govt. already prosecutes unaccompanied immigrant children for deportation
At any given time, there are tens of thousands of kids facing removal proceedings in immigration court
Judges even order thousands removed in their absence every year
The article cites a memo from earlier this month about setting this up at Fort Bliss. But that’s already where deportation flights are originating so I wouldn’t be surprised if this has already happened in some fashion there.
The southern border is now fortified by 16,500 border agents, 3,600 active-duty soldiers, 4,500 Tex. National Guard & 2,200 Natl Guard deployed under Biden. With just 29,000 migrant arrests in Jan., that equates to about one migrant per agent/soldier per month, Adam Isacson of WOLA said. @tucson.com
UPDATE: @POTUS rescinded the stop-work order that halted legal services for unaccompanied immigrant children. We'll continue to work to ensure that kids are not deprived of their constitutional right to due process & legal counsel. Read our updated stmt:
This is an excellent legal analysis by Katherine Yon Ebright and @lizagoitein.bsky.social of Trump's unlawful border "invasion" declaration.
Turns out Abraham Lincoln once led a campaign to censure James Polk for falsely invoking the Invasion Clause, which sparked the Mexican-American War.
Had these myself this morning! Usually add blueberry jam made at home. Buen Provecho!
Happy Valentine's Day! Immigration is not just a political topic, it's deeply personal. Read my review of Anna Lekas Miller's new book "Love Across Borders" which tells the stories of international couples fighting to stay together – including her own.
open.substack.com/pub/austinko...
It is happening. Read Sinclair Lewis’ novel or watch performance adaptations about what happens when authoritarianism researches America. Window into the coming days. Watched the chilling stage play version at Berkeley Rep in 2016. Continues to haunt as I watch things unfold around us. #theatersky
With search engines and social media algorithms blasting around false narratives, solid local reporting on what is actually happening in our communities makes all the difference. Excellent work here. Thank you!