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  Mexico is now a sending, transit and receiving country all at once. Organizations that used to help migrants heading north are shifting to resettlement after deportation. Field notes from Mexico City: https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/notes-from-mexico-city-the-view-from

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  Out today! Thanks to Project Censored for having me back on The Project Censored Show to talk about the Detention Mortality Map, a new tool that tracks deaths in ICE custody. I also talked about medical neglect in ICE detention, the public paying for emergency care while private prison companies collect billions, and why the enforcement system reaches back well before ICE, to the INS. https://www.projectcensored.org/the-detention-mortality-map/

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  Why do we have to use habeas corpus lawsuits for immigrant CHILDREN? Find out Friday at 1:00 PM during my convo with Acacia and partners. 🚨 only -> 8 <- seats left! Registration is free but required. https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PurSNBjAQ7urELkIBSNwVw

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  The $158 million no bid contract to provide lawyers for unaccompanied children went to Our Rescue, the group behind Sound of Freedom. It is unclear whether it employs any immigration attorneys. https://www.npr.org/2026/08/12/nx-s1-5929456/migrant-children-our-rescue

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  The government is looking for a contractor to hold 3,000 unaccompanied children on a single campus, eight to a room, eight sharing one toilet, shower, and sink. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-migrant-children-detention-plans-b3035247.html

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  Detained immigration court is the black box of the enforcement system. These are civil proceedings, but they happen inside an ICE facility where few people have access. I sat down with Professor Rebecca Galemba and the University of Denver team that documents one of those courtrooms in Aurora by hand, because no phones or laptops get past the door. We talked about access, method, and why so much of this system depends on not being seen. Watch or listen at austinkocher.substack.com.

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  I don't know who needs to hear this, but if you're not backing up your computer, you're at risk of losing a lot of data. Remember: a cloud sync is not necessarily a backup (data loss will propagate across devices). ❌ Use an external HD or a real cloud backup service. ✅️

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  Everything in this post comes from detention data ICE was required to publish for years, a mandate Congress just quietly removed. Over 600,000 people booked in since January 2025, and the tools to count it may not last. https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/over-600000-people-booked-into-ice

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  🚨 ‘Stark example of brutality’: Trump’s ICE used court orders in plan to force-feed at least 10 hunger strikers in detention through force-feeding, intravenous forced hydration and involuntary blood draws. Reporting by José Olivares at The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/03/trump-dhs-hunger-strikes-force-feeding-ice-detention

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  The Atlantic profiles DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, whose halt on certain ICE stops stood for barely a day. It followed a week when ICE officers killed two people, a construction worker in Texas and a delivery driver in Maine, each time while looking for other men. Reporting by Nick Miroff for The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/07/markwayne-mullin-secretary-homeland-security-ice/687868/

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  ICE wants to stop renting detention space and build it, under a solicitation worth up to $10 billion. It starts with eight Secure Housing Units totaling 208 cells, about $247 million. Two of the named centers closed years ago, and one on St. Thomas never existed. The ceiling lists 14 more sites, from Honolulu to Guantanamo Bay. Reporting by Em Knepp at Project Salt Box. https://www.projectsaltbox.com/p/inside-ices-plan-to-stop-renting

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  Senior-living facilities, already short-staffed, are being forced to terminate immigrant caregivers as more Americans live longer and need care. Immigrant workers are a large share of the direct-care workforce, and their loss destabilizes care for elderly residents. We depend on the workers the enforcement system renders vulnerable. Reporting by The New York Times (Miriam Jordan). https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/us/immigration-trump-senior-living-staffing.html

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  The foreign farmworkers exploited in Georgia largely came here legally, on H-2A guestworker visas, and were abused by labor contractors despite the federal protections meant to shield them. H-2A sets minimum wages and requires farmers to cover housing and transport. ProPublica spent nearly two years on this. Reporting by Max Blau. https://www.propublica.org/article/h-2a-farmworker-protections-profits-trump

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  A DHS memo that paused ICE traffic stops did not survive the day. It was reversed within hours, after President Trump posted on Truth Social urging the stops to continue. ICE has been relying more on vehicle stops, which former officials describe as dangerous, and the brief pause came after fatal ICE shootings during such stops. Reporting by Documented (Julia Malleck), on reporting first published by The Guardian. https://documentedny.com/2026/07/17/ice-traffic-stops-white-house/

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  Two new federal rules take aim at legal immigration, one overhauling the student visa system and one rewriting the public-charge test. David Bier at the Cato Institute finds the public-charge change would mostly hit relatives of U.S. citizens, above all spouses and minor children. Neither rule affects anyone who crossed illegally. Both target people who did everything by the book. https://www.cato.org/blog/trumps-new-anti-legal-immigration-rules-target-students-spouses-us-citizens

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  Immigration judges are Justice Department employees, inside the executive branch, which leaves them exposed to pressure from the administration prosecuting the cases they hear. After the June 29 ruling in Trump v. Slaughter, the administration removed the three remaining members of the bipartisan Election Assistance Commission within 10 days. The same logic could reach immigration judges. Analysis by Just Security. https://www.justsecurity.org/147642/trump-deportation-immigration-judges/

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  ICE Has Deported More Than 66,000 Family Members Under Trump Administration, Family Detention Is Back at Dilley and Karnes https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/ice-has-deported-more-than-66000

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  The Supreme Court's June 25 decision let the administration end Temporary Protected Status for roughly 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians, and the work permits for that group expired July 24. The legal question is settled for now, but the effects on work authorization, family stability, and community life are still spreading outward. Analysis by SCOTUSblog. https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/07/the-ripple-effects-of-the-tps-ruling/

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  Over 600,000 People Booked Into ICE Detention Centers Since Start of Trump II Administration 65,000 people are currently in ICE detention, but the full impact is much larger and most detained people are deported. 1.75M people could be detained by the end of the second Trump administration. https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/over-600000-people-booked-into-ice

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  A witness to the fatal ICE shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston was facing deportation. A federal judge in Texas has now temporarily stopped it. Whether anyone is held to account for the shooting could depend on whether the people who saw it are still here to describe it. Reporting by CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/houston-ice-shooting-judge-blocks-deportation-witness/

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  For the first time in 30 years, the Alien Terrorist Removal Court is being used. Congress created it in 1996 to let a deportation proceed while the government keeps its evidence classified, much like the FISA courts. A judge sees the evidence. The person facing removal may not. Steve Vladeck examines the first case. Analysis by Just Security. https://www.justsecurity.org/148285/the-alien-terrorist-removal-courts-first-case/

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  DHS plans to pay Thomson Reuters, the company behind the Reuters news agency, $125 million for data on millions of people, including Social Security numbers, ethnicity, social media posts, and geolocation. Procurement records reviewed by 404 Media say the deal would let ICE monitor people continuously, justified as a hunt for voter fraud and immigration fraud. https://www.404media.co/ice-to-pay-thomson-reuters-125-million-to-find-voter-fraud/

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  Opening a new credit card or filing a change of address can send that address through data-broker companies to ICE, which can search it without a warrant. 404 Media traced the supply using government procurement records. Sen. Ron Wyden says Americans have no way to opt out. Reporting by Joseph Cox at 404 Media. https://www.404media.co/you-opened-a-credit-card-ice-now-knows-where-you-live/

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  When someone in ICE custody needs care, a hospital becomes the one place enforcement and medicine meet. The National Immigration Law Center wrote a guide for that moment, and I sat down with three of its authors: Jennifer Ibañez Whitlock, Matthew Lopas, and Dr. Theresa Cheng. Their point is that medical standards govern the encounter rather than immigration authority. Watch or listen, and read the report. https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/hospitals-should-never-become-places

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  The ACLU calls ICE’s well-documented abuses a blueprint for authoritarian rule, and lays out a vision to replace ICE with an agency that manages immigration responsibly and humanely. Watch or listen: https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/they-are-going-to-kill-somebody-aclu

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  *Detention Reports* Updated With Latest Data and Details about ICE Facilities Nationwide Relevant Research's DetentionReports.com project now updated with facility data through July, information on each facility's owner and operator, and 164 contracts across 78 facilities. https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/detention-reports-updated-with-latest

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  You should not fear that renewing a driver's license ends in detention. Naureen Shah on the affirmative vision behind the ACLU's call to replace ICE. My conversation with her and Denise Bell. Watch or listen: https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/they-are-going-to-kill-somebody-aclu

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  The ACLU did not go looking for a pattern. Denise Bell reviewed more than 1,200 enforcement incidents from public records and it emerged on its own. My conversation with her and Naureen Shah on building the record. Watch or listen: https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/they-are-going-to-kill-somebody-aclu

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  For the first time, the ACLU is calling to replace ICE. My conversation with the report's authors, Naureen Shah and Denise Bell, on why reforming the agency at the edges will not work. Watch or listen: https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/they-are-going-to-kill-somebody-aclu

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  The ACLU did something it never has before. It says ICE is too broken to fix and should be replaced, after documenting 1,200 enforcement incidents across eight states. My conversation with the authors. Watch or listen: https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/they-are-going-to-kill-somebody-aclu