Your Support for this Newsletter Helps Shape the National Conversation on Immigration
A report on the growth and impact of this newsletter since the start of the Trump administration, a special thanks to my generous supporters, and a call to help reach 10,000 readers.
Dear Readers,
I want to take a moment to share a quick update with you about the state of this newsletter—how far we’ve come, what we’ve accomplished so far, and how you can help take this work to the next level.
Five months ago, before Donald Trump had been sworn into office, I asked you to join me in building a powerful platform for sharing immigration data, analysis, and research amidst a coming storm of misinformation. As I said at the time, my goal was to write “timely articles that foster shared understanding rather than division” and to build a newsletter for “translating complex immigration issues into accessible insights.”
Thousands of you joined me on this journey by signing up for this newsletter, sharing this work online, and using this work in your reporting, your research, your lobbying efforts, your litigation efforts—or even conversations with family and friends who crave an informed, non-partisan perspective on immigration policies right now. Thank you to every single one of you.
Many of you took a leap of faith by supporting this newsletter financially. Your contributions keep this work sustainable and paywall-free for the entire public so that it continues to grow in reach and impact over the next four tumultuous years. I know that you have choices about where to put your hard-earned dollars and I am honored that you chose to invest them here.
Now that we have crossed the 100-day mark of the Trump II presidency, I feel it is both my obligation and my privilege to update you on how your investment in this work—whether through time or money—has paid off.
Let’s start with an overview of the additional work that has gone into this newsletter. Since the inauguration of President Trump on January 20, 2025, this newsletter…
… published 52 Substack articles. That’s about one every 2.3 days. And these aren’t short announcements, either. I prefer to respect your inbox by only sending substantive filler-free essays and data about rapidly-evolving changes to our immigration system. (And, boy, have there been a lot of changes.)
…provided weekly updates about immigration data, including fast turn around on ICE’s latest detention numbers, the expansion of 287(g) agreements, and the full context for immigration data you need that you won’t get anywhere else. And I always make the underlying data easily accessible so you can see it for yourself.
…expanded the types of posts to include interviews and collaborations. Because of paid subscribers, I have been able to host live events with people like historian Jessica Pishko and author Sarah Towle, publish interviews with people like photographer Greg Constantine and Arizona immigration attorney Luis Campos, and collaborate on joint projects with Adam Sawyer and my friends at The Border Chronicle.
…supported reporters covering immigration, often for the first time. Whether through public panel events or Substack articles focused on working journalists, I have worked hard to make sure that the hard-working news professionals who write the draft of history have access to high-quality, non-partisan perspectives to the benefit of our entire democracy.
Is this work—made possible by your support—having a real-world impact? YES! Here’s how I know that our investment is paying off.
Since January 20, this work has helped shape the national conversation around immigration in at least 50 news articles and media appearances across a wide variety of outlets and media. In many cases, this newsletter is not simply quoted as an authoritative source—this newsletter frequently drives news articles.
Major news outlets—including The Boston Globe, CBS News Christian Science Monitor, Forbes, Mother Jones, The New York Times, Newsweek, NPR, The Washington Post, and USA Today—have relied on this work to fuel their reporting.
But I’m not only interested in the major outlets. Crucial regional news outlets like SFist in San Francisco, 285 South in Atlanta, The Gothamist in New York City, and AZ Central in Arizona have also used this work to cover immigration policy changes.
Why stop at the United States? International news sources, including The Guardian (UK), El País (Spain), Marianne (France), and Newspot Nigeria (Nigeria) also seek inspiration and clarity from this work at a time when U.S. immigration policy has become worldwide news.
Other traditional and non-traditional news outlets use this work, too, including local TV stations, niche markets served by The Markup, innovative online-first video journalism such as Mo News and The Majority Report, and, yes, Breitbart also quoted this work. (There is no ideological screening at the door—I welcome anyone interested in immigration facts and data.)
This newsletter is also now syndicated by The Journalist’s Resource at Harvard University, which republishes select articles here for their own wide audience of reporters across the country.
I was especially honored recently to be invited to NPR’s headquarters in DC to give a talk as part of a larger training for journalists who are now covering immigration for the first time—a sign that, together, we are on the track.
Perhaps most astonishing of all, this newsletter has grown from less than 4,000 readers in December when I asked for your support, to now over 9,000 readers.
I can’t overemphasize how important this is. Making such a divisive and complex topic as immigration both accessible and interesting for so many people gives me hope that there is a rational majority of us in this country who actually want to be a part of a real conversation and find real solutions.
We have come so far together in such a short period of time—but we can do so much more.
That’s why today I’m asking you to help do two things:
1. Help this newsletter to over *10,000* readers.
We are getting close to a milestone of 10,000 readers. With a little push from all of us on social media, in listservs, and worth of mouth to people we know, I believe we can plug even more people into a sensible, research-based dialogue about the reality—and future—of our immigration system. Please be a part of this push by sharing this newsletter online along with your own vision for what a healthy immigration debate should look like.
2. Support this newsletter as a paid subscriber.
If you have the means, I invite you to become a paid subscriber to ensure that this work is sustainable and accessible to the entire public, without the need for artificial paywalls. I am grateful to the early adopters who took a chance on this work several months ago. Now that you’ve seen the impact we can have together, I am not asking you to take a chance on this newsletter—instead, I’m asking you to trust in our track record for public impact and make an investment so that we can do even more.
I truly believe that we are in this together and we are making progress. Let’s continue to lean into this work. Thank you for all you have done, and thank you in advance for all that you will do.
As always, I am humbled by the rich conversations that this newsletter brings my way. Please continue to share this work, send me any and all feedback (including corrections or criticisms), and propose new topics and questions that you would like covered here.
Sincerely,
Austin Kocher, PhD
