Act Now to Safeguard this Newsletter as a Trusted Source of Immigration Information

Join me in creating a more informed, compassionate, and impactful conversation on immigration at this crucial time in our history.

Colleagues and Friends,

I am reaching out to you today with a mix of vulnerability, determination, and enthusiasm about the future of this newsletter.

When I began writing on Substack four years ago, I was nervous because I understood how deeply controversial immigration is for so many people. But I also had faith that there would be a critical mass of people eager to engage in honest, informed, and compassionate conversation about immigration.

You showed up. Our readership grew from a few dozen to nearly 4,000 individuals, including several hundred journalists, academics, and government officials. I have published over 200 articles on various immigration topics, many of which have been cited by national outlets like CNN and referenced in migration research.

I am incredibly humbled and honored that you consider me a trusted source in the national conversation on immigration. And it is with both humility and renewed commitment that I ask for your direct support now.

I am asking you to consider a monthly or annual subscription of $7/month or $70/year. To take this work to the next level at this crucial moment requires significant additional time and resources, as well as a show of faith from my readers that you share this vision. My mission is to make information more available, not less, which is why I am adopting the NPR model: nothing in this newsletter will be paywalled, but the success of the newsletter will depend on the support of paid subscribers. More than just keep this work sustainable, your support will help expand the scope of what I write about, increase the depth of the topics I cover, and ensure critical outside editorial and research support.

Why This Newsletter Matters Now. You and I both know that the next four years will be a volatile time in our nation’s history—especially in the world of immigration. Rampant misinformation and conspiracy theories are escalating, and unless they are challenged, they will continue to shape public perception and policy in dangerous and unpredictable ways.

I do not believe that mere fact-checking is enough to carve a new path towards sanity and civility (and trust me, I’ve done my fair share of fact-checking). Nor do I believe that engaging in endless punditry or attempting to track every single exhausting policy change is the way forward.

Rather, to combat the rise of mis- and disinformation, we need original, timely articles that foster shared understanding rather than division. It is crucial to have up-to-date information and data about immigration enforcement (which you have come to expect from my writing), and also to popularize frameworks that push our thinking about immigration forward in new and creative ways.

My newsletter, one of my primary platforms for translating complex immigration issues into accessible insights, does both. You’ll always receive a steady stream of policy analysis, brand new immigration data, and updates on crucial immigration topics that drew you here in the first place. But over the next four years, this newsletter will also become an incubator for new ways of thinking about immigration that push beyond our old frameworks.

More than ever, we need informed, compassionate, and rational voices in the immigration space, and we urgently need to lean into new and compelling ways of storytelling and creative analyses rooted in research-based insights about the often-hidden inner realities of our broken immigration system. I commit to providing a strong, consistent voice that helps us navigate these challenges and elevates the discourse around immigration.

Please partner with me and let’s take this project to the next level.

Thank you.

Austin Kocher, PhD