5 UK Journalist Tom Latchem Discusses Trump’s New Panama Plan on More
In his characteristically digressive book Unforbidden Pleasures, British psychoanalyst and essayist Adam Phillips argues that our mistaken identification of the forbidden with the rebellious blinds us to how taking pleasure in what is not forbidden can be its own form of resistance. It is a principle found in other popular recent work, from The Nap Ministry, founded by Tricia Hersey, to Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing. The principle isn’t simply about “doing less,” as it is so often misinterpreted; the principle is rooted in a larger project of rescuing enjoyment from shame, including the shame of not being more “productive.”
In a line that I can recite from memory, Phillips grounds his discussion in a practical, simple observation: “It is extraordinary how much pleasure we get from each other’s company.” “Getting pleasure from another person’s company” is one way of describing a core motivation for my life, with academic research, public writing, and community-building as means to that end rather than ends in themselves. I crave interesting conversations—and in a world increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence and the simulacra of critical thought, there has never been a time when we needed to bask in the pleasure of authentic human quirkiness more.
“It is extraordinary how much pleasure we get from each other’s company.”
Forgive me for my own human quirkiness, but this is a long way of expressing my deep gratitude for the wonderful array of exhilarating conversations I was lucky to be a part of this week. So while I take shelter from the heat advisory outside (it’s 95F/35C) inside a bar and watch the Canada-Bosnia and Herzegovina match, let me share those conversations with you and invite you to find enjoyment in these, as well.
1. Julia Malleck and I Talk Immigration Data for Documented’s “Early Arrival” Newsletter
Documented (formerly Documented NY) is a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to reporting with and for immigrant communities in New York City. I’ve been a fan of their work since they launched. One of their best offerings is a newsletter written by Julia Malleck called Early Arrival, which features immigration news and analysis from across the country. I was over the moon to be featured in Early Arrival this week, in an in-depth Q&A about how I do my work, why I write so much on Substack, and what gives me hope these days. You can read “Q&A: Austin Kocher on the Power of Immigration Data” over on DocumentedNY.com and sign up for Early Arrival there, or you can get Early Arrival right here on Substack. They launched their Substack newsletter on Monday, which featured the interview, so if you are already loving the Substack ecosystem and want to keep it under one roof, you now have that option, too. Thank you to Julia for the conversation!
2. The New York Times Featured My Delaney Hall Analysis
Last Saturday morning while drinking my morning coffee, I received a text message from a friend and colleague who said, “Congrats on the NYT article!” I had no idea what they meant; I didn’t remember talking to any NYT journalists about a story. So when I checked out the link, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ed Shanahan and Hamed Aleaziz, two journalists I respect a lot, had written up my analysis of the contested Delaney Hall detention facility in New Jersey, where people inside and outside are protesting poor detention conditions. The article “ICE Says Detainees Are ‘Worst of the Worst.’ Government Data Disagrees” accurately contrasts outlandish claims by the Trump administration with what the data says about who is being held at the facility. Super honored to be featured and grateful that facts still matter.
3. Adam Sawyer Discusses Relevant Football
You might know Adam Sawyer from his highly impactful work at Relevant Research, especially the Detention Reports website. But in our first on-camera conversation together, we focused on a far more positive topic: why the World Cup is an opportunity to celebrate our diversity and promote global solidarity. Adam joined me to announce a new data-driven project called Relevant Football, a website that serves as a home for data about the teams and players of the World Cup and a hub for related data about the countries involved to show that we have more in common than what divides us. Adam has a nuanced and informed perspective on the complexity of this year’s World Cup that rivals anything you’ll hear from mainstream commentators. Thanks for the conversation, Adam!
UPDATE: Since our conversation, Bishal, one of the developers behind Relevant Football, added LIVE information that includes current scores and a countdown timer to the next match! This is the type of creative work Relevant Research does for clients in the immigration space. Reach out to Adam at [email protected] for more information or to submit feedback, and follow him on Bluesky for regular sports commentary and lots of immigration data.
4. Core Principles of a Fair and Functional Immigration Enforcement System
I’ve been eager to talk to Nayna Gupta and Aaron Reichlin-Melnick since they first released their latest report “Restoring Credibility and Humanity: A New Framework for Immigration Enforcement.” The report argues that Americans do not need to choose between an all-or-nothing approach to enforcement, but instead need to recover some sanity and figure out how to balance the legitimate goal of public safety and national security with the absurdity of people who are no threat to anyone being deported after living in the United States for literally decades. I encourage you to read the full report, but if you don’t have time, at least listen to our conversation below when you’re driving or around the house (you’ll get all of the basics and much more).
5. UK Journalist Tom Latchem Discusses Trump’s New Panama Plan on More
Daily Beast correspondent Tom Latchem joined me this week to discuss his PunchUp investigation with Pablo Manríquez/Migrant Insider into a new asylum-denial machine inside Panama and how the program could turn that country into an arm of DHS. Tom is the rare reporter who can describe a slide into authoritarianism and a DHS press flack in the same breath without losing the thread of either. He talked about the official statement DHS sent him for publication, which attack journalists instead of maintain any semblance of professionalism. Tom brings a sense of enthusiasm and levity to a serious topic, and is already making waves in his investigative work. Honestly one of the funnest conversations I’ve had online in a while despite the gravity of it all.
6. “Deported After Serving” on The Raid Podcast
Speaking of the joy of conversation, John Carlos Frey, host of The Raid Podcast, invited me on his show to talk about how our immigration system harms veterans. John reached out after listening to my series of conversations with Shawn VanDiver, Christopher Purdy, Margaret Stock, and Danitza James about the impacts of the immigration system on active duty military and their families, veterans, and our allies. John was a terrific host and his program regularly features smart conversations with people like Jacob Soboroff, attorney Chris Newman, Jenn Budd, and many others. In addition to the podcast and YouTube video below, you can also follow The Raid on Instagram. Catch my conversation with John as well as his impassioned exposure of what ICE is doing to Hmong people who served alongside US troops in Southeast Asia.
Deported After Serving
John Carlos Frey
Episode
They Fought For Us – Now We’re Deporting Them
John Carlos Frey
Episode
7. This Week on ICE Podcast
The Delaney Hall analysis hit home with a lot of people this week. I spoke with Matthew Kendrick for This Week On ICE Podcast about why it’s so important for the public to understand how the data about who ICE is detaining contradicts the official inflammatory narrative about dangerous criminals and terrorists. You can give that conversation a listen on Substack and Spotify.
A new $70 billion windfall for ICE — and Delaney Hall data that disproves DHS misinformation
Team TWOI
Episode
This Week On ICE Podcast
A weekly podcast covering the U.S. Donald Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and ballooning enforcement apparatus, hosted by journalists Kelly Kimball and Matthew Kendrick.
8. Ashrei Foundation Releases Dashboard on St. Louis Rapid Response Hotline
I joined Sara Ruiz earlier today for the release of a new dashboard created by the Ashrei Foundation and their local partners that provides grassroots insights into immigration enforcement in the St. Louis region. Projects like this are incredibly important because they fill in gaps left in government data, advance the legitimacy of local organizing, and help communities understand what’s actually going on. Sara said it best in her closing remarks:
“Data creates visibility, visibility enables accountability, and accountability requires collective action.”
The dashboard was already featured in an article by Brian Muñoz at St. Louis Public Radio. Take a look at the Ashrei Immigration Data Dashboard and read the blog post announcement to get more context.
9. Forthcoming: Project Censored
It is always an honor to be invited onto Project Censored with Eleanor Goldfield. Our conversation will be online soon. In the meantime, you can read Eleanor’s weekly newsletter “The News that Didn’t Make the News” which offers a powerful critical take on what the mainstream news media is ignoring.
My This Week by the {Immigration} Numbers post comes out tomorrow. Be sure to subscribe below ✅ if you haven’t yet so you don’t miss it!
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Looking back over the week, I keep returning to Phillips’s line about how much pleasure we get from each other’s company. The match ended in a draw, the heat hasn’t broken (thunderstorms are on their way, apparently), and I am even more grateful for the unforbidden joy of being in this difficult work alongside passionate, intelligent, and creative friends and colleagues across the country. My thanks to everyone who talked with me this week, and to you for reading. I hope you find a good conversation of your own this weekend—and don’t forget to join the conversation with a comment or feedback below.