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This week the Trump administration announced that officials apprehended 76,000 "illegal immigrants" in February, the highest monthly total in more than a decade.
But this figure is purposefully misleading, which got me thinking about the politics of immigration statistics & the way federal officials manipulate them—a topic I address in my work. I gave a talk this weekend on the topic and I wanted to share some of my thoughts here.
So here's a thread about the politics of immigration statistics and "how to manufacture a crisis at the border."
1. Repeatedly demonize migrants and refugees by describing them as criminals, rapists, gang members, “animals,” potential terrorists, “thieves and murderers,” “snakes,” and “illegals." Publicize widely in speeches and press releases and on social media. 
2. Deploy 5,600 troops to the US-Mexico border in South Texas under the guise of stopping a caravan of asylum seekers. nytimes.com/2018/11/10/us/…
3. Refuse to admit asylum seekers at ports of entry or return them to Mexico, forcing them to (a) wait in precarious conditions and in violation of domestic and international law, or (b) or cross the border without authorization. vox.com/2019/3/5/18244…
4. Include these same asylum seekers you pushed to cross the border without authorization in the total count of "illegal immigrants."
By inflating apprehension statistics officials simultaneously (a) create the notion of a surge or invasion at the border, (b) call attention to the need for additional funding, and (c) celebrate DHS's “accomplishments.”
5. Release inflated statistics with hope that mainstream media outlets will pick them up, in turn reinforcing your desired political narrative. (If a media outlet offers a more accurate and nuanced assessment, distort the coverage to fit your ends.)
6. Send out inflammatory email blasts citing media reports of the inflated statistics you circulated as evidence of a CRISIS AT THE BORDER that constitutes a national emergency.
7. Send administration officials to reinforce this crisis narrative in televised hearings before Congress. c-span.org/video/?458250-…
8. Use all of the above as justification to declare a national emergency, build a wall, put more agents on the line, increase enforcement spending, and expand the nation's capacity to detain and deport immigrants.
Now, I should note that this strategy isn't new; it's actually a page out of an old playbook. As sociologist Gilberto Cárdenas pointed out 40 years ago, immigration authorities have long relied on statistics to create “a sense of alarm, urgency and a call for action.”
The words of a former immigration service statistician from the mid 1970s provide additional evidence of how federal officials manipulate statistics for political ends.
The media—which the statistician referred to as “one of our best tools in emphasizing the threat that the illegals pose to the stability of the economy”—has played a key role in immigration officials' efforts for more than a century.
Meanwhile, today, the Trump administration downplays, excuses, or altogether ignores the *real* humanitarian crisis at the border, which includes:
The separation of thousands of families. theintercept.com/2018/10/11/tru…
The refusal to hear asylum claims in violation of international law. (vox.com/policy-and-pol…
The sexual abuse of thousands of migrant children in US custody. axios.com/immigration-un…
This humanitarian crisis, similar to the manufactured crisis, is one of the administration’s own making. But it's important to recognize that Trump is far from the only one who benefits.
The immigration bureaucracy and the shareholders of firms that profit from the deportation machine, among others, also have vested interests in the status quo. And so even though these policies are morally inexcusable and indefensible, they are unlikely to end anytime soon. /fin
