beyond the numbers: what emerges from Dashboard data
Ashrei hosted an Insights webinar to introduce our new Eastern Missouri Immigration Enforcement Data Dashboard and explore what the dashboard data can teach us about immigration enforcement in Missouri today. Executive Director, Sara Ruiz, was honored to be joined by Dr. Austin Kocher, a leading researcher on immigration enforcement who spent time with us in St. Louis this spring.
Together, they examined emerging trends from Ashrei's Immigration Data Project, connected Missouri’s trends to national enforcement data, and explored how communities can use data responsibly to advocate for accountability and reduce harm.
Watch the full webinar here:
Much of what happens in the immigration enforcement system occurs out of public view. Many families experience the impacts of enforcement directly, but comprehensive local data is often difficult to find or only contains limited depth of information.
Through our work operating the St. Louis Rapid Response Hotline, our volunteers regularly hear direct reports that describe - oftentimes in great detail - how their loved one was arrested, what the transfer and legal processes felt like, and learn critical information about abysmal conditions inside Missouri’s jails that contract with ICE to detain immigrants. We also repeatedly hear from community members, advocates, journalists and service providers, searching for answers.
One of the central themes of our conversation was the importance of interpreting and utilizing enforcement data carefully.
“Data alone never tells the whole story. Behind every data point is a person, a family, a neighborhood, and a community navigating the consequences of enforcement actions. ”
While Ashrei’s dashboard provides valuable insights, it does not capture every enforcement encounter occurring across Missouri. It reflects incidents reported through the Rapid Response Hotline and therefore represents only a portion of the broader enforcement landscape and must be considered in a broader context. At the same time, this data offers an important window into trends that might otherwise remain invisible.
Drawing on data collected through the STL Rapid Response Hotline, the dashboard provides a public resource that increases transparency, informs advocacy, and deepens our shared understanding of the impacts of immigration enforcement on Missouri families.
As we discussed the dashboard in community, three simple truths emerged:
1. Missourians demand transparency.
Many people in our communities are concerned, angry, frustrated, confused and searching for truth. Local data helps communities better understand what is happening around them, especially when official information is limited or delayed. By tracking Hotline data over time, we can identify emerging patterns, ask better questions, and respond more effectively. This data is clear about who is being targeted for enforcement: families, loved ones, parents, young people, and grandparents, from over 50 different countries.
Our data is also clear about who is responsible for locking up our loved ones. Local law enforcement, the majority of whom do not have an active 287(g) agreement, are, in large part, responsible for arrests that ultimately lead to ICE detention. Arrests at scheduled immigration check-ins account for the next largest share. This means that local police are ICE’s primary muscle in our region, while ICE makes false promises to people to come in for “routine” visits that sometimes result in unexpected detention. Transparency alone does not resolve our community’s concerns, but it became clear in our discussion that transparency creates visibility, and visibility is often the first step toward accountability.
2. Missourians demand access.
Participants in the webinar were appalled at the numbers of people that have been funneled into ICE’s detention and deportation machine in the last year. Even more shocking were the numbers of requests for basic legal information, one of the primary resources provided by the Hotline.
Our volunteers have provided nearly 600 free legal consultations with immigrants detained in Missouri. For many, this is the only chance a detained person has to ask questions about the complex legal processes that now define their lives. Sitting with compassionate volunteers who are trained to ask detailed questions and provide comprehensive, honest answers doesn’t always change an individual’s outcomes, but remains as one of very few moments for honoring our shared humanity amidst a system that actively works to convince us that one life matters more than another. Access to information about loved ones that didn’t make it to work, guidance for the complex telecommunications systems that enable families to talk to detained loved ones, and support through deportation are fundamental elements of access that Ashrei approaches as matters of justice.
3. Missourians demand dignity.
Criminalization of immigrants, executive orders, state laws, the rise of 287(g) agreements and the infrastructure that is designed to create the dreadful realities the Dashboard describes do not align with the values our communities seek. Over and over again, as we explored the questions and conversations behind the charts and graphs on the dashboard, crumpled faces, digital emojis, and ongoing discussion in the chat made it clear that what is happening in our state is not what Missourians desire. Families should not be separated; social contracts should not be nullified for political gains; no one should have to fight for a glass of water in state custody; and all this devastation should not happen in the dark or with impunity.
The purpose of collecting and sharing the information in the Dashboard is not simply to observe what is happening. It is to strengthen all community efforts that alleviate suffering, improve community response systems, and inform advocacy aimed at protecting families and upholding human dignity.
The webinar also highlighted significant gaps in available immigration enforcement data nationally. While community-generated data sources like the dashboard help fill some of those gaps, there is still much we do not know:
What is the role of discretion in local policing practices?
What actions are local cops mandated to do versus choosing to do?
Why do some scheduled check-ins at ICE offices result in detention but others don’t, when case histories appear to be the same?
Who is responsible for ensuring that county jails detaining our loved ones ensure their safety and health?
Who will hold them accountable when they don’t?
These unanswered questions underscore the importance of continued documentation, research, transparency, and community engagement, which will continue to fuel Ashrei’s dedicated efforts to improve the quality of our data and the strength of our relationships.
The launch of this dashboard is not the end of a project—it is the beginning of an ongoing, collective effort to make information more accessible and useful for communities across Missouri.
We will continue updating the dashboard monthly, typically around the 15th of each month, as new data becomes available through the Rapid Response Hotline.
Our hope is that this resource serves advocates, journalists, researchers, policymakers, service providers, and impacted community members alike—helping all of us better understand what is happening and how we can respond together.
If you'd like to be part of this work, we invite you to:
Explore and share the Immigration Enforcement Data Dashboard.
Subscribe to receive updates from Ashrei.
Support this work through a financial contribution.
Share your skills, expertise, and ideas to help strengthen this effort.
Thank you to everyone who joined the conversation, asked thoughtful questions, and continues working toward a future where all families can live with dignity.
Together, we can transform information into understanding, understanding into action and heal Missouri rooted justice and dignity.
