thank you so much, I'm still so honored and shocked that anyone takes an interest in what I do :)

Austin Kocher | Substack Decode the U.S. immigration system with clear analysis backed by data and designed for curious readers. Click to read Austin Kocher, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

This is such a selfish request that my Protestantism is showing, but my research assistant told me I have to ask folks to please subscribe + share so we can get to 12,000 readers by the end of the week. Will you do it for the sake of promoting research-powered information?

austinkocher.substack.com

Donald Trump exploited the massive hole of national pride left by neoliberalism and progressive’s assumption that the working class would automatically refuse to align with billionaires. To win, we have to present a unified positive vision of the best ideals of America that welcomes everyone.

There’s a lot being said about the Dignity Act but not all of it reflects what’s actually in the bill. I joined a conversation to break down what it means for mixed-status families, what it gets right, and where there’s still debate. @austinkocher.com

austinkocher.substack.com/p/is-the-dig...

Should we refer to ICE detention centers as “concentration camps” - or is this even the right way to ask the question? John Washington and I explored this in a wide-ranging conversation today.

Listen here + what do you think? austinkocher.substack.com/p/centers-or...

ICE Reports 16th Detained Death of 2026 at Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, a 49-year-old man from Mexico, died on April 11 at a private prison in rural Louisiana. The pace of one death every 6 days continues to hold.

ICE Reports 16th Detained Death of 2026 at Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana

Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, a 49-year-old man from Mexico, died on April 11 at a private prison in rural Louisiana. The pace of one death every 6 days continues to hold.

austinkocher.substack.com/p/ice-report...

🙏

Time for a new profile pic (now that I wear glasses).

The Full Story Behind Deaths in ICE Detention: A Conversation with Sun Jin and Colin Lin of the San Francisco Chronicle

austinkocher.substack.com/p/the-full-s...

The Dignity Act of 2025 (H.R. 4393) is the only major bipartisan immigration reform bill in Congress right now, and it has spent the last week being mischaracterized by calling it “amnesty.” Join me and Rebecca Shi in a convo with
@austinkocher.com

Link: austinkocher.substack.com/p/is-the-dig...

Is the Dignity Act "Amnesty"? My Conversation with Ashley DeAzevedo and Rebecca Shi @afuashley

Link: austinkocher.substack.com/p/is-the-dig...

Should we refer to ICE detention centers as “concentration camps” - or is this even the right way to ask the question? John Washington and I explored this in a wide-ranging conversation today.

Listen here + what do you think? austinkocher.substack.com/p/centers-or...

The 16th ICE detention death just occurred at the Winn facility in Louisiana. The pattern I just wrote about continues: 1 death every six days.

austinkocher.substack.com/p/ice-report...

Another person died in ICE custody at the Winn facility in Louisiana. More details soon here and at austinkocher.substack.com.

Is the Dignity Act "Amnesty"? My Conversation with Ashley DeAzevedo and Rebecca Shi Nativist outrage on X over the Dignity Act is generating more heat than light right now. I wanted to understand what the bill actually does, so I talked to two of the people who know it best.

Is the Dignity Act "Amnesty"? My Conversation with Ashley DeAzevedo and Rebecca Shi

Nativist outrage on X over the Dignity Act is generating more heat than light. I wanted to understand what the bill does, so I talked to two people who know it best.

austinkocher.substack.com/p/is-the-dig...

I first spoke with Julie Moreno back in October, when she and her husband Neff made the difficult decision for him to self-deport to Mexico after more than twenty years of building a life together in the United States

watch: austinkocher.substack.com/p/it-still-f...

"It Still Feels Like the Life We Had Was Shattered": A Follow-Up Conversation with Julie Moreno of American Families United Five months after her husband Neff left the United States, Julie Moreno is still here, speaking out, showing up, and refusing to let the country forget what it's doing to families like hers.

"It Still Feels Like the Life We Had Was Shattered": A Follow-Up Conversation with Julie Moreno of American Families United

austinkocher.substack.com/p/it-still-f...

If you are not following @austinkocher.com you are missing out. I'm learning a lot watching his conversations. Please consider following & subscribing to his content.
Lidia Page 🤝
@laloalcaraz.bsky.social @eltragon.bsky.social @sergeantaqgo.bsky.social @repcasar.bsky.social @repescobar.bsky.social

Five months after her husband Neff left the United States, Julie Moreno is still here, speaking out, showing up, and refusing to let the country forget what it's doing to families like hers.

Watch: austinkocher.substack.com/p/it-still-f...

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: The Truth about the Dignity Act: A Conversation with Ashley DeAzevedo and Rebecca Shi. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. As Congress moves closer to common-sense, bipartisan immigration fixes through the Dignity Act, a swell of online misinformation and bad-faith accusations of "amnesty" are preventing Americans from understanding...

Join me today at 4pm ET with Ashley DeAzevedo (AFU Action) and Rebecca Shi (ABIC Action) about the Dignity Act. We need informed debate, but rampant bad-faith claims about "amnesty" are causing confusion. Get the facts.

us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Untangling the Messy Politics of Immigration Data | Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute | Columbian College of Arts & Sciences | The George Washington University Dr. Austin Kocher from Syracuse University will lead the April MWWIR session.

Why is immigration data so messy and how can we make sense of it in a polarized world? Join me at GWU (Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute) this Friday (TODAY) at 12pm for a public conversation. Registration required below, in person only.

cisneros.columbian.gwu.edu/untangling-m...

You can also join me as I learn more about the Dignity Act with Ashley DeAzevedo and Rebecca Shi. That one's virtual so really everyone in America is welcome to join. Bring questions, comments, concerns, criticisms. (i.e., GTF off X for an hour)

austinkocher.substack.com/p/the-truth-...

Remember: if you're in the DC area, join me at GWU tomorrow for a talk about the politics of immigration data. Registration is required. All are welcome!

austinkocher.substack.com/p/event-anno...

Please feel free to use these visualizations any way that you see fit with attribution, no need to ask permission. Note that you can download the data for each visualization, download a static image, or embed the visualization in your own website. Spread the data.

... ICE continues to shuffle people off the smartphone tracking app known as SmartLINK and ramping up the number of people on the more punitive GPS ankle monitors. There are now 46,302 people on GPS ankle monitors (largest in ICE history, according to data ).

One place where we have seen lots of growth is the number of immigrants now monitored on GPS ankle monitors. The number of people on alternatives to detention (ATD) (aka, electronic monitoring; aka ISAP) is at 180,701 and...

What about ICE arrest? We have seen a decline in the average number of daily ICE arrests since it peaked in January during Operation Midway Blitz. The full month of March and the first four days of April show lower daily arrests than any month going back to August 2025.

Interestingly, for the first time I can recall, the total number of people with criminal convictions is now the smallest of the three groups. It’s not by much, but it's another data points that contradicts the admin's claims about “the worst of the worst."

The fundamental lesson here is that major fluctuations in arrests, detentions, and deportations—at the national, aggregate level—driven almost entirely by immigrants with no criminal history. But the principle holds true both ways: sharp declines are also driven by this pop.

As I’ve written before, almost as a rule, the growth of immigrant detention is driven more than anything else by immigrants with no criminal history. I predicted this at the start of the Trump administration and that prediction has come true.

austinkocher.substack.com/p/immigratio...