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The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse — a data gathering, research and distribution organization based at Syracuse University — found that the United States’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention numbers in September returned to pre-pandemic levels with over 35,000 detainees.

TRAC, which was founded in 1989 through a joint sponsorship by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, uses the Freedom of Information Act to obtain and analyze federal data. Through its work, TRAC makes key government data accessible and comprehensible to the general public, according to its website.

“We do this because we care about government transparency, accountability and making this data available for the public but also for academic researchers as well,” said Austin Kocher, a research assistant professor at TRAC.

TRAC publishes reports and tools for free to the public on the internet, allowing users to closely examine what particular government agencies — like ICE, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration — are doing, according to Susan Long, TRAC co-founder, co-director and associate professor of managerial statistics in Whitman.

Long said one of TRAC’s most used analyses is its project on immigration enforcement, as many people who access its research are interested in the border and asylum seekers in the United States.

ICE is also currently monitoring 194,632 families and individuals through alternatives to detention programs as of September, according to TRAC’s Immigration Quick Facts website. Long said these alternative detention methods include smartphone apps or ankle monitors. TRAC also found that Texas held over 10,000 individuals in its detention facilities during the 2023 fiscal year.

TRAC’s findings coincide with a growing immigrant population in the United States. New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau have shown that the number of people in the U.S. who were born in a different country reached a record high of over 46 million in 2022.

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Demographers from the Pew Research Center have claimed that the return to growth in immigration coincides with the return of legal immigration, which includes visa processing and refugee approval, after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Immigration also began to grow after former President Donald Trump left office. On May 11, President Joe Biden’s administration ended Title 42 — a law from 2020 which denies people from seeking asylum in the U.S. to “stop the introduction of communicable diseases.” Both the Trump and Biden administrations justified the policy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kocher said the first step in the data analysis process invokes research to understand what kind of data the government collects and keeps in order to properly submit a public records request. He became involved with TRAC after using its data for years in his previous immigration research work before coming to SU.

Once TRAC receives data, researchers evaluate how it’s organized and related in order to properly turn the data into stories through statistical analytical methods, Kocher said.

“Then, we publish that in research reports, as well as online interactive tools so that people can go in and see the data for themselves in a more interactive and dynamic way,” Kocher said.

Sometimes federal government agencies don’t easily comply with TRAC’s requests, Long said. She said it has been difficult to obtain certain information from ICE, such as data ICE tracks or detailed case-by-case immigration data.

TRAC consistently tracks ICE’s biweekly release of data on immigrants in detention, but Kocher said that the government website removes the last previous data set when new data is updated.

“Most of the public is not going to be able to go back and look at the data over time, but, because we collect it, we’re able to look at the time series data so we’re able to see every two weeks pretty detailed data on immigrants and detention,” Kocher said.

Kocher said TRAC’s data provides a sense of “authoritative insight” because the group has been tracking government data for long periods of time and is able to put the numbers in proper context for users.

Long said TRAC has three ongoing lawsuits to the federal government regarding FOIA requests, asking for more government records for its various projects. In addition to its immigration enforcement data projects, TRAC is continuing its work on long-term projects regarding the Internal Revenue Service, individual federal judges and changes in drug enforcement, Long said.

Since TRAC’s inception, Long said the center has expanded its faculty and staff in Syracuse and around the country. It now has offices in Washington D.C. and a branch on the West Coast. Kocher, who also works in the D.C. branch, said the office benefited from an in-person presence when discussing federal data, especially after the pandemic.

In D.C., Kocher is able to meet with organizations that have questions about TRAC’s data or findings, as well as discuss concerns face-to-face. He added that this “two-way street” relationship also helps faculty and staff learn more about data that may be useful to share with the public.

In response to receiving numerous requests for data access from researchers at other universities, TRAC formed the TRAC Fellows Program, which allows researchers to submit proposals to obtain data access for their projects, according to the program’s website.

2023 TRAC Fellows include researchers from various esteemed universities around the world, including Stanford University, Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania. TRAC also offers internships for SU students.

Hailey Salmonsen, a 2023 TRAC Fellow, worked with the center for her honors undergraduate thesis on remote adjudication and its impact on detained immigrants. Salmonsen graduated from SU in May with a degree in political science, government and geography.

Salmonsen said she discovered TRAC through Kocher, who was her professor for the GEO 450: Geographies of Migration and Mobility course.

With the support of her advisor Emily Thorson, an assistant professor of political science in SU’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Salmonsen used the data to determine that detained immigrants who had their hearings conducted remotely via video teleconference had higher odds of removal compared to those with in-person hearings.

“I was able to take all the data that they gave me and run regression models on it and just the general statistics on it,” Salmonsen said.

Kocher said TRAC also brings media attention and visibility to SU, as well as academic connections to various universities. Because of TRAC’s work over the years, Kocher said that it’s used its depth and breadth of data to create valuable conclusions that he hasn’t seen at other centers beyond SU.

Published on October 5, 2023 at 1:04 am

Contact Kendall: kaluther@syr.edu