Immigration Updates: Podcast on Border Technology, Non-binary Gender Option on USCIS Forms, New ICE Detention Data, Threads, & Improvements to Substack Navigation

Today’s newsletter features several important stories and updates that don’t easily fit into another thematic post, so I’m sharing them here as a Thursday goodie bag.

Rather than use a stock photo this time (and in keeping with the goodie bag theme), I thought I’d share an image of the Newhouse School of Public Communication from Syracuse University (where TRAC is partly based) to showcase the work of the famous midcentury architect I.M. Pei, who designed the building. It’s brutalism, sure, but I actually quite like it.

New Podcast on Border Enforcement, Surveillance, and Technology

I was fortunate to join James Stout (@jamesstout) on the podcast It Could Happen Here along with my colleague Jake Wiener, an attorney at EPIC who focuses on technology, privacy, and immigration. We had a good long conversation about CBP One and SmartLINK, much more thorough than anything else out there, I believe. The podcast is titled “Technology and Surveillance on Migrants”, and the full conversation was broken up into two parts, both of which are out now. To learn more about Jake Wiener’s work at EPIC, click here. Listen online at iHeart or on Apple Podcasts below.

USCIS forms will soon recognize gender-nonconforming applicants

USCIS foreshadowed this change back in March in a related announcement that said, “effective immediately, USCIS will accept the self-identified gender marker for individuals requesting immigration benefits.” In that press release, the agency also said that they were “working on options to include an additional gender marker (“X”) for another or unspecified gender identity.”

USCIS did not seem to be able to get this change formally implemented by the end of Pride Month, so they reiterated this intention in a tweet on the afternoon of June 30. It was the first time I had heard of this (not that I follow USCIS as closely as the other agencies), so it was news to me. No corresponding press release was published.

New Threads App Attracts Users from Twitter but Poses Privacy Risks

Many of you have probably heard about the new social media app Threads. Threads is a platform built on Instagram and owned by Meta (the Facebook company) that purports to offer yet another alternative to Twitter.

As usual, I signed up immediately mostly to make sure I have a handle (it’s @austinkocher, if you’re interested). I entirely ignored Twitter for a long time and missed an opportunity to be active during its better years, which means that now I jump onto a new platform just to make sure I know how it works in case it becomes the Next Big Thing.

But don’t get too excited.

I do not think Threads is going to be the Next Big Thing, at least not without some major changes. Yes, it has some clear advantages over other social media sites because Meta has the capacity to scale and it has a captive number of users already that it can shift towards Threads. For now, at least, it’s pretty uninspired. It’s basically the comments section of Instagram turned into an app.

More importantly, you should also know that because Threads is built by Meta, the data it collects from you is insane in its depth and scope compared to other platforms. Wired has a great article on Threads privacy and data collection protocols that is worth reading before you sign up (and it may well discourage you from signing up). In this regard, Mastodon continues to be the least invasive.

In Wired’s article “How Threads’ Privacy Policy Compares to Twitter’s (and Its Rivals’)”, they describe Threads’ data collection as follows:

“Threads (Android, Apple) potentially collects a wide assortment of personal data that remains connected to you, based on the information available in Apple’s App Store, from your purchase history and physical address to your browsing history and health information. “Sensitive information” is also listed as a type of data collected by the Threads app. Some information this could include is your race, sexual orientation, pregnancy status, and religion as well as your biometric data.”

Also note that if you create a Threads account, you’ll never be able to delete your account without also deleting your Instagram account. So you’re pretty well locked in. I think that’s a pretty awful deal for users, but my guess is that Thread’s wiring is so jerry-rigged into Instagram’s code that it’s impossible to disentangle it once you’ve created an account. (If someone knows more about the development of the app, please let me know—I’m a little curious about the backend development.)

So what do you think? Are you on Threads or do you plan to create an account? I’m curious to hear about your first impressions of the app and why (or why not) you’ve decided to try it out.

ICE Detention Numbers Remain Far Below Trump Admin

The most recent data on ICE detention numbers do not reveal any new trends. The total detained population remains around 30,000, not exactly the explosion of detention that some of us (including myself) thought might happen after the end of Title 42. For comparison, this is about half of just one of the near-highs of the Trump administration, when the daily population exceeded 50,000 for quite some time.

See TRAC’s recent announcement about updated immigrant detention data here for more information and context.

Improvements to Substack Site Navigation

I am in the process of making improvements to how posts on this Substack site are organized which should make it easier to find what you’re looking for. I have written 168 posts so far, which is no small feat. Some posts contain timely information about events and news items that aren’t as relevant a year later, while other posts have more long-term relevance. I also find that I tend to write about a few major themes in immigration, such as asylum, immigration courts, CBP One, alternatives to detention, and so on.

To make it easier to find things by topic, I have begun to add keywords (or tags) to posts, then add those keywords as sections that appear at the top of the homepage (see screenshot below ⬇️). Only a few keywords are highlighted so far, but this is likely to evolve somewhat over time. The key takeaway for you is that if you are looking for a post on a specific topic or want to see what the latest news and data is about a topic you know I write about, it should now be much easier to find it using the sections at the top of the page.

Support public scholarship.

Thank you for reading. If you would like to support public scholarship and receive this newsletter in your inbox, click below to subscribe for free. And if you find this information useful, consider sharing it online or with friends and colleagues. I maintain a barebones site at austinkocher.com and I share immigration data, news, and research on Mastodon (@austinkocher), Twitter (@ackocher), and Instagram (@austinkocher). You can see my scholarly work on Google Scholar.