Trump Administration Hides Immigration Data

0:00From Durham, this is your March 15th update. The Trump Administration is wrapping up immigration enforcement with goals like deporting one million people and zero releases at the border, but public data on these efforts is disappearing fast. Key government offices have stopped updating stats on arrests, detentions, and removals that were once easy to track. Meanwhile, the Office of Homeland Security Statistics, which has monitored immigration since the 1800s, has not refreshed its monthly. Reports since early last year, an interactive dash war from immigration and customs enforcement lost for transparency is stuck on data from January of this year, with no annual report in sight. Researchers, advocates, and journalists say this data draw makes it impossible to verify claims or measure policy impacts. Lawyers used to cite these figures in court, but now they scramble for scraps from other sources like border and counter stats. Numbers released by the Department of Homeland Security have been all over the place.

1:02One news release claimed over 675,000 deportations since Trump took office, then it dropped to 622,000, and later rose to 700,000, and analysis pegs that actual figure closer to 400,000. Even with bipartisan calls for more openness, the administration insists it shares plenty of info. This now rely on Congressional mandated reports, which face delays and get overwritten, leaving gaps in tracking recent enforcement surges. Support for this DNN episode comes from our sponsor. Your favorite podcast, music, or sleep sounds coming from your pillow. No earbuds, no distractions, just listen and relax. S-O-L-I-S-O-L-P-L-O dot com.