Austin Kocher

Austin Kocher

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Immigration Courts

No, "Deportation Judges" Don't Exist—But That Won't Stop Trump's DOJ from Staffing the Immigration Courts with an Army of Minions
After firing dozens of immigration judges, Trump's DOJ is now recruiting "deportation judges" to rubber stamp removal orders. It will undermine the…
 • Austin Kocher
ICE and EOIR Data Cut Off During Government Shut Down Just as ‘Mass Detention’ Gets $45B Boost
ICE hasn’t produced crucial detention data in over 45 days despite continuing its aggressive—and sometimes illegal—enforcement rampage during the…
 • Austin Kocher
AI Comes to Immigration Court: A New EOIR Memo Raises More Questions Than Answers
EOIR Acting Director Sirce Owen says AI is "not prohibited" in immigration court, but the memo signals bigger changes ahead with Trump admin encouraging…
 • Austin Kocher
LIVE: The Asylum Denial Machine Explained
Watch now | In this Substack Live event, I break down the latest data from the immigration courts, specifically the shocking spike in asylum denials…
 • Austin Kocher
31:59
Immigration Judges Closed and Denied More Asylum Cases in March Than Any Month on Record
In a record-breaking month, immigration judges fast-tracked asylum denials at a record pace, raising questions about due process, the politicization of…
 • Austin Kocher
New Guidance Encourages Judges to Toss Out Asylum Claims Without a Hearing
EOIR Acting Director Sirce Owen is transforming the immigration courts one memo at a time.
 • Austin Kocher
Trump Declares War on Immigration Attorneys
In one of his most dangerous moves so far, Trump instructed the DHS and the DOJ to use "professional ethics" as a mechanism for silencing lawyers who…
 • Austin Kocher
Thank Goodness It's (Five Immigration Things on a) Friday
Welcome back, friends.
 • Austin K
Watch My Conversation about the Immigration Court Backlog with Pedro Echevarria on C-SPAN
I spoke with Pedro Echevarria on The Washington Journal this morning about the record backlog of pending cases in immigration courts and the asylum…
 • Austin K
Immigration Bill Flops Just Hours After Released
A proposed immigration bill released to the public by a Senate committee on Sunday has already been declared “dead on arrival”.
 • Austin K
3 Million Cases are Now Pending in the Immigration Courts, Is That a Bad Thing?
As of the end of November, 3,075,248 deportation cases were pending in the U.S.
 • Austin K
Growing Numbers of Afghan Migrants Face Deportation in Court
Over 5,000 Afghan nationals faced new deportation cases so far this year, published first on the Immigration Lab's blog at American University.
 • Austin K
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