Immigration
Daybook
We turn the spectacle of the immigration system into evidence, every weekday.
- Monday–Friday
- English & Spanish
- Free in August
On Aug. 24, the comment window closes on a DHS rule that raises the naturalization filing fee by 75% and eliminates fee waivers outright. If you're filing, that's a big jump you have to budget for. If you're a lawyer, that's a week of phone calls you'd rather schedule than receive. If you're a reporter, that's a story you want to file on the 23rd, not the 25th.
Maybe you already knew, because you track this stuff yourself. A lot of people don't, and shouldn't have to.
That's what we built Immigration Daybook to solve: a broad, daily view of news about U.S. immigration with the key upcoming events front and center.
There's a lot of metaphorical fire in the U.S. immigration system right now, but there's even more smoke: thousands of articles, videos, threads, and posts a day, often covering actions that seem designed to create confusion, chaos, and spectacle. We're using algorithms to show where the smoke is thickest and using our judgment and expertise to reveal what really matters.
What's in it
01
A calendar of what's coming
Effective dates, comment deadlines, court dates — all backed by primary sources and links to expert analysis. The rules that quietly take force while everyone's arguing about the outrage of the day.
02
The day's rundown, grounded in reporting and evidence
When we cite links about deportation, we check them against the Deportation Data Project. A reported rule change is checked against the Federal Register and USCIS Policy Manual.
03
The headlines… from English and Spanish media
Our innovative technology goes beyond the big stories and prestige investigations you probably saw. Spanish language TV news, deeply technical policy blogs, Substack newsletters, social video — from nerdy law blogs to YouTube coverage of ICE raids, we're watching and bringing you what's relevant.
How it's made
This newsletter is proudly algorithmic, and we intend to make it the most carefully crafted algorithmic writing you've ever read. The bet isn't "AI reads the news" — lots of people are doing that, and a lot of it is slop. The bet is that a newsroom can have a brain: something you can actually query about everything it knows, that shows its work instead of asking you to trust it.
The system reads the day's news and surfaces the patterns it finds. Then a person edits — what it means, whether it's accurate, and who covered it best. That person is David Eads, a data journalist with years of experience covering immigration for publications including NPR and The Marshall Project.
Start Wednesday.
August is a free pilot while we figure out what this should be and how to sustain it. We'd rather have you in the room for the early version than polish it in a vacuum.
Questions, corrections, or a story we're missing? Tell us.