Austin Kocher : ICE's Mass Detention Infrastructure Meets Resistance in Maryland Mass deportation requires mass detention, but ICE's legitimacy probs catching up... Maryland cnty blocked a facility after the agcy bypassed state transparency laws @austinkocher.com open.substack.com/pub/austinko...

Leavenworth’s Planning Commission voted 5–1 to advance CoreCivic’s zoning request to reopen a shuttered prison as an ICE detention center. The site was previously closed amid violence, understaffing, and failure to report an inmate death. www.kansascity.com/news/politic...

ICE just released new detention statistics. As of January 25, 2026, ICE is detaining 70,766 people across the United States. www.ice.gov/detain/deten...

El Paso City Council voted unanimously to develop limits on future ICE detention facilities, directing staff to explore land-use restrictions, warrant requirements for ICE entry into city buildings, and a full review of cooperation. Report due in 60 days. elpasoheraldpost.com/2026/02/03/e...

Dozens protested at Surprise City Council after ICE bought a $70M warehouse locals fear will become a 1,500-bed detention center. Mayor Kevin Sartor says federal authority leaves the city with little power to stop it. www.azfamily.com/2026/02/04/d...

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara says years of fragile trust-building after George Floyd are being undermined by a federal immigration surge. Local 911 lines are flooded as residents fear ICE tactics and agents call for backup amid protests. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/u...

DHS and ICE quietly purchased a massive Berks County warehouse for $87.4M. The facility has been identified as a possible ICE detention center—just two years after the county closed its family detention center. whyy.org/articles/ber...

The Maryland House moved forward with legislation to prohibit local police from cooperating with ICE under 287(g), brushing aside Republican amendments. Final votes in both chambers are expected Tuesday. marylandmatters.org/2026/02/02/h...

FBI agents searched a Georgia election center and seized 2020 ballots. Reporting shows the director of national intelligence was present, and a phone call indicates President Trump was personally involved in the investigation. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/p...

ICE calls reports of family separation in Minnesota a “false narrative,” claiming officers “cared for” a 5-year-old after arresting his father and took him to a drive-through before detaining them together. Agency also says a church protest was a “riot.” www.wccsradio.com/2026/01/23/i...

The Epstein files are like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The more you watch, the more you’re like, oh I know that guy, he’s in this too huh? Is there anyone left in Hollywood who isn’t in this??

78 metro areas have more undocumented residents than Minneapolis. So why is ICE there? Because Trump can't legally force "sanctuary cities" to cooperate, so he's using violence instead. A sharp legal breakdown of what's really happening. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/02/t...

Here's @austinkocher.com on this latest ICE data release: austinkocher.substack.com/p/ices-delay...

Deeper analysis from @austinkocher.com here: austinkocher.substack.com/p/ices-delay...

ICE's Delayed Detention Data is Out, Two Record Highs: 70,000 People Detained, 40,000 on Ankle Monitors austinkocher.substack.com/p/ices-delay...

ICE is withholding public data that Congress requires the agency to publish. This isn't good for anyone, no matter what your politics are. Call your representatives and tell them to release the data! austinkocher.substack.com/p/ice-withho...

ICE agents were spotted in the Lower East Side taking photos and trying to access the back of a coffee shop. A barista asked them to leave, and they did. Now elected officials are going door to door teaching workers their rights. www.amny.com/news/politic...

If you want more context on the missing data mentioned above, @austinkocher.com has a useful post explaining why it matters. austinkocher.substack.com/p/ice-withho...

Days 57-62 in Minnesota: Journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort indicted for covering a protest. A 5-year-old ordered released. Agents who killed nurse Alex Pretti identified. Community blockades go up. Federal judges list 96 court violations by ICE. unicornriot.ninja/2026/ice-in-...

USC students joined 200 protesters at the SC Statehouse Friday, part of a national strike sparked by the killing of nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents. "If they will do this to immigrants, they will do this to anyone," said USC student organizer. www.southcarolinapublicradio.org/sc-news/2026...

5-year-old Liam and his father ordered released from ICE detention by federal judge, who slammed the government for "traumatizing children" in pursuit of deportation quotas. The child was detained in Minnesota and moved to Texas. www.jurist.org/news/2026/02...

The Wall Street Journal cited my analysis showing detention growth is driven almost entirely by people without criminal convictions. Here's exactly how I got those numbers. austinkocher.substack.com/p/show-your-...

ICE arrests increased dramatically from 2024 to 2025. Get the facts about immigration data at austinkocher.substack.com.

5.5 million U.S.-born children live in mixed-status families. As ICE enforcement ramps up, deportations are pushing families toward separation, poverty, and foster care, especially when undocumented parents are detained without notice dailybruin.com/2026/01/29/m...

"In the middle of a week of tense budget negotiations that hinge on funding for the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is flaunting Congress’s requirement that it produce detention data every two weeks."

ICE Withholds Congressionally Mandated Detention Data: In the midst of heated budget negotiations over immigration enforcement, ICE flouts Congress's prior mandate to publish timely detention data. Article by @austinkocher.com open.substack.com/pub/austinko...

ICE Withholds Congressionally Mandated Detention Data In the midst of heated budget negotiations over immigration enforcement, ICE flouts Congress's prior mandate to publish timely detention data. austinkocher.substack.com/p/ice-withho...

Nationwide “ICE Out” protests hit LA this Fri–Sat, with actions at City Hall, Koreatown, Long Beach, Culver City, and more. Organizers are demanding an end to ICE raids and federal enforcement surges. thelalocal.org/immigration/...

In 2023 NYT laid out Trump’s mass deportation plan: detain immense numbers of people in such miserable conditions that they’re compelled to stop fighting their cases & agree to leave. They’re still getting to “immense numbers.” But the core concept is working for them. mailchi.mp/43a225b48ded...

A reminder that this is how USCIS - a benefits-focused bureaucratic agency, not an enforcement agency - is recruiting for what is actually known as Immigration Service Officer position and they've rebranded is "Homeland Defender." Injecting nationalism into everything. www.usajobs.gov/job/847039500

Schumer has to go.

Tom Homan met with MN sheriffs over ICE detainers as disputes grow over detainee counts and legality. State officials say ICE detainers alone can’t justify holding someone in jail kstp.com/kstp-news/to...

I love Dan Olson's video essay on film over at Folding Ideas, but this latest brief video critique of DHS's weird af social media post about a penguin from a Herzog documentary take the cake. Worth watching. www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7Wq...

ICE is required to report the deaths of detained immigrants, but does not have to report on injuries/deaths that happen during arrests incl 24 recent violent/fatal arrests. Congress needs to fix this by required full 360-reporting on ICE deaths. documentedny.com/2026/01/27/t...

Remember: ICE is no longer an immigration enforcement agency. It's a right wing social media influencer account with guns and camps.

Trump's immigration approval is underwater. ICE favorability is 50/50. Most Democrats and independents oppose current tactics. Yet some elected Democrats still say Trump "won the immigration debate." Ernesto Castañeda explains why that's wrong and what the data actually shows.

We haven’t learned a single new thing about Trump and his leadership style we didn’t already know from the leaked Access Hollywood tape.

Mikhail Okunuga was born in Soviet Azerbaijan to Armenian parents. When the USSR collapsed, he became stateless. He spent 18 months stranded in American Samoa, trapped in a place that "looked like paradise but felt like prison." He's now a US citizen. His memoir tells the story.

New GAO report finds CBP has failed to consistently provide required medical care to people in custody. 57% of adults with potential illness/injury and 20% of pregnant individuals did not receive required medical assessments from August 2023 to August 2024. 🧵

TSA has been quietly sharing passenger data with ICE since March 2025. This while facing staffing shortages, record passenger volumes, and the first fatal commercial crash in nearly two decades. American Oversight is suing to learn what data is shared and what safeguards exist.

Philip Elliott at TIME maps the 2026 Senate battlefield. Democrats see a narrow path back to the majority requiring flips in Alaska, Maine, North Carolina, and Ohio. Republicans see a favorable map but are nervous about polling trends and Trump's primary meddling. 🧵

A federal judge ruled ICE violated the Fourth Amendment by entering a Minnesota man's home without a judicial warrant. Agents used pepper spray, a battering ram, and rifles while children were inside. They only showed an administrative warrant after he was already handcuffed.

Within minutes of Alex Pretti's killing, the Trump administration labeled him a "terrorist" and "assassin." NYT and Bellingcat analyses show he was holding a phone, not a gun, when officers approached. Minneapolis police say he was a lawful gun owner with a carry permit.

The Dispatch reports on new Siena/NYT polling: Americans now disapprove of Trump's overall immigration handling 58% to 40%. That's a 12-point net decrease since September. But border handling still gets majority support (50-46%). Voters are distinguishing between the two. 🧵

Kelsey Norman and Nicholas Micinski explain why ICE tactics are shocking Americans: militarized immigration enforcement used to happen at the border, far from most people's lives. From 2010-2020, nearly 80% of deportations were initiated at or near the US-Mexico border. 🧵

Attempting to accompany someone to their ice check-in today, Baltimore ICE field office is closed but they didn’t actually bother telling anyone. So people have made the treacherous journey in in single-digit temperature only to find that they didn’t have to do this after all.

Jonathan Rauch at The Atlantic makes the case he long resisted: Trump's governing style is now best described as fascist. Not bc of any one thing, but because of the totality. "Fascism is not a territory with clearly marked boundaries but a constellation of characteristics." 🧵

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could determine whether immigration officers can treat people as deportable based on criminal charges alone, before any conviction. The case is Bondi v. Lau, and the stakes for due process are enormous. 🧵

Oscar Hagelsieb, 25-year immigration officer who voted for Trump 3 times: "They're causing chaos, and unfortunately it's costing lives." Current/former officials describe disillusionment as Trump's tactics drive away the people trained to do this work. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/u...