Gasparian Spivey Immigration

08/14/2026

A recent study shows that there are 111,000 fewer international students enrolled in US higher education institutions than in 2024 at the start of the president's second term. That loss could cost the country more than $3 billion, $23 million of that in Louisiana.

All indicators say again and again and again that the mass deportation agenda is brutalizing the economy, but the current administration seems unaffected by the prospect of the country being collateral damage in its immigration policy.

A decline in international students at American universities could cost the U.S. more than $3 billion, including $23 million for Louisiana

08/10/2026

The New York Times recently published an editorial by Ohio's Republican governor Mike DeWine. He applauds the president's efforts to get control of the southern border, then points out what we've been saying for more than a year now, that the president's immigration agenda is terrible for America's economy.

"Like the president, I want everyone who comes to this country to do it legally — and I applaud his focus on and success at bringing us closer to that reality. However, despite his administration’s success in stemming illegal immigration, its approach to those here legally threatens to derail economic momentum in my state and elsewhere by deporting hard-working individuals and shutting the door to future talent.

According to one estimate, international students added nearly $55 billion to the nation’s economy in 2024. Yet the administration has drastically reduced our international student population — a sharp departure from decades of open-ended academic stays that supported research and spurred innovation.

In January, the State Department froze immigrant visa approvals for applicants from 75 countries. (In July, a Federal District Court judge ruled that this was unlawful.) Those visas have in recent years accounted for nearly half of all U.S. immigrant visas.

The administration also reduced the annual cap on refugees allowed into the United States to 7,500 from 125,000, before raising it to 17,500, with most of those slots reserved for white South Africans.

In Springfield, Ohio, Haitian nationals have played a major role in the city’s economic comeback. They’ve filled jobs, repaired homes, paid taxes, started businesses and supported their families. But the administration has ended their Temporary Protected Status, a move I have vocally opposed.

It’s time for Mr. Trump’s Nixon-goes-to-China moment. Having established himself as a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, he should begin a thoughtful, forward-thinking discussion with members of Congress in both parties about enacting a legal immigration policy that strengthens national security, bolsters our economy and keeps decent, hard-working people here.

Among the reforms he should consider supporting: Establishing new pathways to extend the legal status of foreign students who graduate with advanced STEM degrees, essentially stapling a green card to their diplomas; reworking the H-1B visa program to better prioritize workers whose skills and experience are essential to American businesses; and equipping employers with modern, reliable tools to verify work eligibility."

We still have meaningful differences, but in many ways it looks like DeWine has been reading our page!

08/05/2026

We've talked at length on our blog about the cost of the administration's immigration agenda - how it is raising costs and making life harder for all Americans. A recent study quantified how much more experience, calling it the ICE tax. Link is in the comments.

07/24/2026

"Self-deportation" doesn't work quite the way our government says it does, particularly for those who want access to any of the financial incentives offered. For many, it's simply deportation.

We breakdown self-deportation vs. voluntary departure, which sound like the same things but have very different consequences. (In the comments)

07/10/2026

Immigration reporter Dara Lind writes at Documented that the government's version of "self-deportation" (which doesn't have a definition in law) is treated as deportation, complete with a 10-year-ban on trying to re-enter the country. She suggests that even immigrants who want to leave voluntarily should talk to an experienced immigration attorney to see how best to do it. (link in the comments).

07/09/2026

Bill Kristol of The Bulwark on the sons of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo calling for an explanation of his killing by ICE agents in Houston recently:

"It is these young men who are calling for a full and honest investigation into why a peaceful and law-abiding man was killed while driving to work by agents of our government. It is they who are seeking the truth about what happened and asking the public to come forward with any new video or images that might shed light on their father’s death. It is they who are trying to hold our government to American standards of responsiveness and accountability and decency.

And it is our government that is stonewalling and covering up, refusing so far to provide any information at all about what happened Tuesday morning in Houston. It is our government that appears to be blocking independent investigations by the Justice Department or by local authorities. But not to worry: The Department of Homeland Security inspector general, we are assured, will add this case to the more than 600 complaints of misconduct by DHS employees that his office is now investigating.

We should be grateful that Ronaldo Salgado Araujo came to live here in the United States, to build houses for Americans, and to raise three American sons. Araujo was not yet an American citizen, though he had in the last eighteen months filled out paperwork and provided documentation, references, and fingerprints in an effort to regularize his immigration status. But he had lived as an American, de facto if not de jure, for the last thirty-five years. As his son said, he had sought to live the American Dream and to help others to do so.

His son also remarked, 'My father was always a strong man and never wanted us to know if he was in pain. He never complained.' Our current government, by contrast, is led by weak men who constantly complain, and who benefit from exploiting other Americans’ weaknesses and anxieties. Our current leaders talk endlessly about American exceptionalism, while turning us into an unexceptional country presided over by thuggish apparatchiks.

I dare say Ronald Salgado Araujo was a better American than they are."

Link is in the comments.

07/03/2026

Earlier this week, we posted the first part of WBRZ Channel 2's "ICE on the Bayou" series, an investigation by Stephen Stock • Investigative Reporter into Alexandria becoming a hub for ICE detention and deportation flights.

We've collected all three parts of the series and added some notes of our own to add some context to Stock's reporting. It's worth the time to dig into this and understand how the state and businesses in it have got in the human misery business.

In his " ICE on the Bayou " series, Stock spent six months documenting the way Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has made an airport in Alexandria a hub for deportation flights. In that time, he found that 47 percent of all deportation flights left from Alexandria, with on average 14…

06/30/2026

Last week, WBRZ Channel 2 in Baton Rouge started a multi-part series by Stephen Stock • Investigative Reporter, "ICE on the Bayou" on the role Louisiana plays in the current administration's deportation agenda. This first part shows how Alexandria has become the leading airport in the U.S. for deportation flights out of the country.

The two disturbing parts: 1) the matter-of-fact treatment of governmental cruelty. Nobody makes any effort to hide what they're doing because it's legal for the government to fly airplanes in and out of the country; 2) the industry that has grown to service the deportation agenda, from detention centers to private airlines to airfields. Unfortunately, Louisiana has long been in the human misery business with private detention facilities.

More of Stephen's series in the next few days.

A WBRZ investigation has found that Alexandria International Airpor...

06/12/2026

Earlier in the week, a judge struck down the current administration’s attempt to charge employers $100,000 to bring in an employee on an H-1B visa. We broke down the ruling and who’s impacted by it.

One of the cornerstones of the president’s efforts to reduce legal immigration was to charge employers $100,000 a piece for any foreign nationals they bring in with an H-1B visa. While the focus of H-1B conversations is on the tech sector, which uses between 50 and 70 percent of the H-1Bs availabl...

06/09/2026

We need one of these for the office.