NPR and The Journalist's Resource: Strengthening Immigration Reporting in Volatile Times
Today was a big day—and I’d love to share some good news. I had the great fortune to visit NPR’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. to talk with a group of reporters about immigration. It was a huge honor and a real privilege to be in the room with journalists who are sharp, passionate, and deeply committed to helping the public understand some of the most complex issues of our time.
As I have mentioned before, I have come to believe strongly in the role of an independent press—one that isn’t beholden to any political party or administration. This is not a value I held, or at least held that deeply, when I started my career. But relationships with journalists over the past few years have convinced me of this. Because of this, I’m eager to support the work of journalists, whether that’s data, policy insight, or historical context, to help them do their work with accuracy and integrity.
A lot of reporters these days are being asked to cover immigration, even if it’s beyond their normal beat. Many of them, such as the reporters I spoke with today, are being asked to take on immigration stories, often for the first time. It can be a big shift. As you know, immigration is a complex topic with lots of pitfalls. My goal today was to offer a kind of crash course on how immigration enforcement actually works, what the data reveals (and conceals), and how to make sense of the variety of claims that enforcement agencies make.
Thanks so much to NPR for having me!
And thanks to my amazing colleague, Kathleen Bush-Joseph from the Migration Policy Institute for joining me. Follow her on X and Bluesky for up-to-date news and analysis on immigration.
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Also today, The Journalist’s Resource published an article based on two Substack posts I co-authored with Adam Sawyer about Interval ADP. The article walks reporters through our method for estimating recent detained populations at individual ICE facilities—something ICE’s own public data makes hard to see. The article is specifically designed to help journalists cover immigration detention with greater clarity and confidence.
Our editor, Carmen Nobel, did a fantastic job of helping us translate the Substack posts into a coherent whole. The article is based on our post on Monday and Wednesday of this week, and the new article is title: “For journalists who cover immigration, better ICE detention data now available.” Please feel free to share this around as a resource and reach out if you have any questions or comments.
For more examples of how I try to connect academic research to journalists, here is a resource specifically written for reporters and it includes a link to the panel session I did for The Journalists Resource in February (still totally relevant).
I’m grateful to The Journalist’s Resource and NPR for creating space for these kinds of conversations. And if you want to republish or excerpt anything I’ve written on Substack—whether it’s analysis, data visualizations, or methods—please feel free to reach out. I’m always open to collaborations that help get clear, credible immigration research into the hands of more people.
On a related note, I’m also excited to share that since January, my work has been used in about 50 news articles from news outlets big and small. Some of these articles, interviews, and podcasts were driven entirely by data and policy analysis that you read first right here in this newsletter. Here is a selection of a dozen or so recent news articles that use or cite my immigration work. Thanks to all of you who help make this happen by supporting this work financially or sharing these articles online.
MacMillan, D. (2025). Immigrants forced to sleep on floors at overwhelmed ICE detention centers. The Washington Post. Retrieved 2025-04-19 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/04/18/immigrant-detention-overcrowding-trump-crackdown/
Laughland, O., & Craft, W. (2025). Trump officials increasingly recruit local police for immigration enforcement despite ‘red flags’. The Guardian. Retrieved 2025-04-30 from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/30/trump-local-police-immigration
Villagran, L., & Ignacio, C. (2025). Trump has cracked down on immigration and the border. At what cost? USA Today. Retrieved 2025-04-30 from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/29/100-days-trump-immigration-policies/83231167007/
Villagran, L. (2025). White House touts nearly 140,000 deportations, but data says roughly half actually deported. USA Today. Retrieved 2025-04-30 from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/28/trump-100-days-touts-deportation-surge/83280907007/
Newhouse Impact (2025). Data and facts on US immigration policy don’t always line up with rhetoric and understanding. WAER. Retrieved 2025-04-30 from https://www.waer.org/podcast/newhouse-impact/2025-04-29/data-and-facts-on-us-immigration-policy-dont-always-line-up-with-rhetoric-and-understanding
Camacho, P. (2025). Partnerships Between ICE and Local Law Enforcement Rise Despite ‘Clear Red Flags’: Report. International Business Times. Retrieved 2025-04-30 from https://www.ibtimes.com/partnerships-between-ice-local-law-enforcement-rise-despite-clear-red-flags-report-3772041
Cattani, R. (2025). Trump’s mass deportation campaign dealt setback in California federal court. Visalia Times Delta. Retrieved 2025-04-30 from https://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/story/news/local/california/2025/04/30/california-federal-court-stymies-trumps-mass-deportation-campaign/83373847007/
Aleaziz, H. (2025). 6-Day ICE Operation in Florida Resulted in More Than 1,000 Arrests. The New York Times. Retrieved 2025-05-01 from https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/politics/ice-arrest-immigration-florida.html
Newspot Nigeria Editorial Board (2025). A Quiet Storm: How 287(g) is Reshaping U.S. Immigration Enforcement—and Why Nigerians Should Care. Newspot Nigeria. Retrieved 2025-05-01 from https://newspotng.com/a-quiet-storm-how-287g-is-reshaping-u-s-immigration-enforcement-and-why-nigerians-should-care/
Dorn, S. (2025). White House Now Claims More Deportations Than Under Biden—But Struggles To Prove It. Forbes. Retrieved 2025-05-01 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2025/05/01/white-house-struggles-to-explain-deportation-figures-as-experts-dispute-numbers/
Qureshi, S. (2025). Arrests are up, deportations are (maybe) down: An expert helps us parse the government’s confusing immigration numbers. 285 South. Retrieved 2025-05-06 from https://285south.com/arrests-are-up-deportations-are-maybe-down-an-expert-helps-us-parse-the-governments-confusing-immigration-numbers/
The Majority Report (2025). Trump Builds Deportation Army; HHS Pushes Trans Conversion w/ Austin Kocher, Kellan Baker MR Live. The Majority Report.
Villarroel, M. (2025). Trump Administration Denied More Asylum Cases in March Than Any Other Single Month In Almost 25 Years: Report. The Latin Times. Retrieved 2025-05-12 from https://www.latintimes.com/trump-administration-denied-more-asylum-cases-march-any-other-single-month-almost-25-years-582860
Jonsson, P. (2025). Beat cops to game wardens, Florida expands ‘army’ of immigration enforcers. Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2025-05-13 from https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2025/0513/illegal-arrest-immigration-florida
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