Austin Kocher, PhD
@ackocher · Baltimore, MD · joined 22 Aug 2013
I study the immigration enforcement system. Geographer. Prof. in @NewhouseSU at @SyracuseU & Fellow at @Immigration_Lab/@AU_CLALS.
23 352Followers
5 727Following
13 913Posts total
1.1MViews on collected posts
Latest posts
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@sfchronicle @stjbs @kolyn_cheang I spend much of my time tracking deaths in ICE detention. This is a careful account of the months that come before that. https://t.co/2Pa844XWo2
201 views · 6 likes
· 3 reposts · 0 replies
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@sfchronicle Six providers were waiting on nearly $5.6 million as of July. Scripps Health in San Diego is owed $3 million. A nonprofit ambulance service in rural Pennsylvania is owed about $197,000, which is 13 percent of its annual revenue, and has kept answering the calls.
221 views · 4 likes
· 2 reposts · 1 replies
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@sfchronicle ICE's 2025 detention standards require medical care at no cost to the detainee. People are getting bills anyway. One man was pursued by debt collectors over a $634 blood test. Another was handed $17,210 after emergency gallbladder surgery he had while handcuffed.
172 views · 2 likes
· 2 reposts · 1 replies
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@sfchronicle @stjbs and @kolyn_cheang interviewed 12 people with serious conditions in detention and documented eight cases where independent physicians said the delays could have caused life-threatening harm. One had lived here 52 years and waited months for an oncologist.
204 views · 3 likes
· 2 reposts · 1 replies
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@sfchronicle The cause is administrative. The VA ended its arrangement to process ICE's medical claims from outside specialists last October. ICE called the result an "absolute emergency" in writing and issued an internal directive limiting offsite care and medication.
221 views · 5 likes
· 2 reposts · 1 replies
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ICE has not paid any of its medical providers for detainee care since October 3, 2025. Hospitals and ambulance services are owed millions, and detainees are billed for care ICE's own standards say must be free. New from @sfchronicle: https://t.co/2Pa844XWo2
1.5K views · 32 likes
· 20 reposts · 2 replies
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The dashboard documents 289 deaths in ICE custody back to 2003. Mathew Miranda used it the evening of our briefing to report that all six California deaths under this administration were at hospitals.
@mathewjmiranda @makeitrelevant
https://t.co/aCoy525eFr
738 views · 14 likes
· 7 reposts · 2 replies
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ICYMI yesterday: two groups sit outside every count of deaths in ICE detention. People who had the same medical emergency and lived by chance, and people released or deported who died afterward. Watch or listen.
@makeitrelevant
https://t.co/aCoy525eFr
664 views · 10 likes
· 5 reposts · 0 replies
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Adam Sawyer spent an hour asking me how our team built the ICE Detention Mortality Dashboard, and for once I was the one answering. Most of the hour went to decisions rather than features. @adamjsawyertan
780 views · 8 likes
· 2 reposts · 1 replies
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@ackocher I think the solution is to allow people to recover their immigration fees from the Somalis who stole $10 billion - maybe let them get up to 200% of their fees.
9.9K views · 266 likes
· 14 reposts · 16 replies
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The State Department is actively instructing consular officers NOT to tell applicants they're banned, even as those applicants pay fees and attend interviews.
41.6K views · 808 likes
· 186 reposts · 5 replies
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Over 561,000 people (including those already living in the US for decades) are now blocked from obtaining legal permanent residence. Work permits, green cards, status adjustments: all frozen with no statutory authority cited.
39.2K views · 723 likes
· 163 reposts · 4 replies
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The administration has also stopped publishing most immigration statistics making it even harder to track the full damage.
36.2K views · 684 likes
· 106 reposts · 2 replies
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Full analysis: https://t.co/RriCP3EODm
More at https://t.co/OsE3UXMggP
35K views · 569 likes
· 159 reposts · 14 replies
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Cubans are the most affected: nearly 1 million blocked applications totaling $543 million in fees. Venezuelans follow with 239,000 applications and $138 million. Nigerians, Afghans, Haitians, and Iranians round out the top groups.
49.6K views · 759 likes
· 134 reposts · 5 replies
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The US government collected over $1 billion in immigration fees then refused to process the applications. No denials. No refunds. Just silence. This is the largest fee fraud in the history of the American immigration system. Here's what's happening. 🧵
738.2K views · 14.2K likes
· 5.5K reposts · 197 replies
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A December 2025 proclamation alone blocks 1 in 5 legal immigrants from entering the US. It covers major origin countries including Cuba, Venezuela, Nigeria, Haiti, and Iran, with no end date and no refunds for fees already paid.
62.7K views · 809 likes
· 120 reposts · 9 replies
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Sponsoring a spouse costs US citizens up to $2,675 in fees alone, $675 to petition, $1,440 to adjust status, $560 for a work permit. The government is cashing those checks and then doing nothing. That's fraud not delay.
48.6K views · 1.1K likes
· 237 reposts · 6 replies
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Three separate policies (signed by Trump, Secretary Rubio, and USCIS head Edlow) now bar citizens of 92 countries from receiving immigrant visas. That covers roughly half of all legal immigrants entering the US from abroad.
63.3K views · 910 likes
· 146 reposts · 5 replies
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Against accounts of the same size
9 posts from the last 90 days, next to the 10K–100K follower range. reaches fewer people than peers, but engages them much harder.
Median views221this account924median for 10K–100K
Reach, %0.95%this account3.62%median for 10K–100K
Engagement, %3.12%this account1.52%median for 10K–100K
| Metric | This account | Median for 10K–100K | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median views per post | 221 | 924 | 0.24× |
| Reach (views ÷ followers) | 0.95% | 3.62% | 0.26× |
| Engagement rate | 3.12% | 1.52% | 2.05× |
Others in this range → Compare with another account → How these benchmarks are built →
Growth & engagement
How the posts we collected actually performed: views and reaction rate post by post, what the audience did with them, and where the follower count goes.
Views per post
35K23 Mar
36.2K
39.2K
41.6K
9.9K24 Mar
7802 Sep
664
738
1.5K3 Sep
221
204
172
221
201
Last 14 collected posts, oldest on the left. The scale is logarithmic: one post can outrun the rest a hundred times over.
Engagement rate per post
2.13%23 Mar
2.19%
2.27%
2.42%
2.99%24 Mar
1.41%2 Sep
2.26%
3.12%
3.85%3 Sep
3.62%
2.94%
2.91%
3.17%
4.48%
Reactions — likes, reposts, replies and quotes — divided by views. Median for 10K–100K accounts is 1.52%.
What the audience does
Likes68.8%20 897 in total
Reposts22.3%6 768 in total
Replies0.9%272 in total
Quotes0.7%215 in total
Bookmarks7.3%2 219 in total
Share of every reaction we collected for this account. Replies mean argument, reposts mean endorsement, bookmarks mean the post was worth keeping.
The follower curve appears once this account has two daily snapshots — we take one a day, and this one is on its first.
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