Co-Director
TRAC
Co-Director
TRAC
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Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse
==========================================FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On October 31, 2019, TRAC published a report that outlined our recent unsuccessful attempts to address inaccurate data published by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the agency within the Department of Justice responsible for overseeing the U.S. Immigration Court system. In a response to a journalist, a spokesperson for the EOIR claimed, “to the best of our knowledge, the EOIR data release is accurate and up-to-date.” We disagree. Based on a careful review of the data published by the EOIR in September and in prior months, we have substantial evidence that the EOIR’s September release remains inaccurate and incomplete.
In response to what we believe are factually inaccurate statements made on behalf of the EOIR, TRAC sent a letter on November 4, 2019 to EOIR Director James McHenry requesting a correction to public statements made by his agency. TRAC enclosed a copy of detailed evidence substantiating the request. We emphasize that the ongoing issues with data accuracy persist despite several rounds of attempted corrections by the EOIR as described on our previous report, and we look forward to working with EOIR to resolve these issues.
To view the letter to the EOIR and the related data, go to:
https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/582
If you want to be sure to receive notification whenever updated data become available, sign up at:
https://tracfed.syr.edu/cgi-bin/tracuser.pl?pub=1
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TRAC is self-supporting and depends on foundation grants, individual contributions and subscription fees for the funding needed to obtain, analyze and publish the data we collect on the activities of the US Federal government. To help support TRAC’s ongoing efforts, go to:
https://trac.syr.edu/cgi-bin/sponsor/sponsor.pl
David Burnham and Susan B. Long, co-directors
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse
Syracuse University
Suite 360, Newhouse II
Syracuse, NY 13244-2100
315-443-3563
trac@syr.edu
http://trac.syr.edu———————————————————————————
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse is a nonpartisan joint research center of the Whitman School of Management (http://whitman.syr.edu) and the Newhouse School of Public Communications (http://newhouse.syr.edu) at Syracuse University. If you know someone who would like to sign up to receive occasional email announcements and press releases, they may go to http://trac.syr.edu and click on the E-mail Alerts link at the bottom of the page. If you do not wish to receive future email announcements and wish to be removed from our list, please send an email to trac@syr.edu with REMOVE as the subject.
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Once, the “Annual Statistical Yearbook” put out by EOIR was a “gold mine” of helpful information for scholars, researchers, reporters, and the public.
No more, under the Trump DOJ. Now, EOIR puts out a steady stream of inaccurate, incomplete, and misleading “statistics” that often are manipulated to distort the truth and offer apparent support to the Trump Administration’s endless store of White Nationalist lies, myths, fabrications, and false narratives calculated to demean, discredit, and dehumanize both migrants and those who are helping them, as well as to discourage any legitimate scholarly inquiries.
Usually EOIR gets away with it. Migrants and their lawyers are too busy fighting for their lives in the biased and unconstitutional EOIR system to spend too much time on “data dumps.” The media sometimes suspect the problems, but generally lack the time and expertise to do the in-depth analysis necessary to debunk many of EOIR’s bogus claims.
But, the folks over at TRAC are statistical pros. They are not about to be deterred or take EOIR’s normal “in your face, you are the problem, not us, response” without a fight.
Good luck in getting any “confession of error” out of EOIR. In an Administration let by the “Man of 10,000 Lies & Counting” when is the last time anyone admitted to getting or doing anything wrong?
But, I sincerely hope that Susan and David will be asked to testify before the House Oversight Committee and that EOIR will be required to respond in detail to their specific criticisms.
As many have noted, unreliable data makes effective oversight impossible. That’s undoubtedly the intent of this Administration.
PWS
11-07-19