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Here's a really practical thing you can do today: If you know a US citizen in a relationship with someone who is/could be facing deportation, get them connected to American Families United. AFU is an amazing truly bipartisan org that is a home for a lot of people who don't know where else to turn.
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT: "Untangling the Messy Politics of Immigration Data" - at GWU in DC, April 10 at 12PM. Registration required, in person only.
https://cisneros.columbian.gwu.edu/untangling-messy-politics-immigration-data
Dr. Austin Kocher from Syracuse University will lead the April MWWIR session.
Trump’s Deportation Machine is Getting a Reality Check
The Supreme Court looks ready to reject Trump’s birthright citizenship order, DHS has paused its warehouse detention expansion, and even red-state sheriffs are saying no.
https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/trumps-deportation-machine-is-getting
Pam Bondi is out. Trump just fired the AG who spent the last year politicizing the DOJ, failing to deliver the Epstein Files (as Congress req'd), and undermining the federal courts. She won't be missed, but unlikely that a replacement will be different.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/us/politics/trump-fires-bondi-attorney-general.html
From the archives: "Making Sense of the Ambivalent Politics of Deportation Defense Campaigns." This was one of my earliest Substack posts from 2021, but remains relevant today.
https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/making-sense-of-the-ambivalent-politics
Although I can empathize with the desire by many scholars to view political activism by undocumented immigrants as radical (for it is, in some ways, inherently radical to simply exist in the United States without papers), I am opposed to the tendency to glamorize or sensationalize such activism as the expression of political radicalism because, in my experience, I have seen this activism unfold in far more ambiguous and indeterminate ways.
ICE Is Violating Its Own Family Separation Policies
Zain Lakhani explains how the United States is creating a long-term family separation crisis that will last for decades and why we urgently need to build an international family reunification system.
https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/ice-is-violating-its-own-family-separation
Zain Lakhani explains how the United States is creating a long-term family separation crisis that will last for decades and why we urgently need to build an international family reunification system.
A First Look at the Latest ICE Arrest Data Published by the Deportation Data Project
ICE arrest data just arrived with incredibly useful new fields, updated trends in who ICE is targeting and where, deeper understanding of enforcement system, and some quality issues.
https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/a-first-look-at-the-latest-ice-arrest
Most people don’t know that family separation is ramping up under the Trump administration, but it’s happening in new and damaging ways. Join me TODAY to discuss the latest research findings with WRC’s Dr. Zain Lakhani 4:30 east. Reg below.
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_f6SJt3CcSSigeOhENdLNnw
When parents are deported without their children, who is responsible for bringing families back together? A new report from the Women's Refugee Commission and Physicians for Human Rights, "What About My Children: Family Separation Among Parents Deported to Honduras," documents how ICE is routinely violating its own policies designed to protect parental rights, resulting in family separations that may become long-term or permanent. Join lead author Zain Lakhani and immigration enforcement researcher Austin Kocher for a conversation about the report's findings, the on-the-ground research methodology behind it, and the enormous challenge of building cross-national systems for family reunification at a time when the US government remains uncooperative. We will discuss what it means to navigate the overlapping legal regimes of multiple countries, each with different requirements around child custody, child welfare, and family reunification, and why this work is laying the foundation for a functional international response to a growing crisis. Zain Lakhani is a researcher at the Women's Refugee Commission and former White House staffer whose work focuses on US immigration enforcement, family separation, and the rights of detained and deported parents. Austin Kocher is a Research Professor at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications whose work on ICE operations, detention data, and immigration enforcement is widely cited by journalists, advocates, and practitioners. He writes at austinkocher.substack.com.
The latest from Project Salt Box: "ICE is Pushing Boundaries of Federal Procurement Rules to Fast-Track Detention Expansion."
