The Fine Print Week: Refugees, Workers, Train Riders and a Doctor DHS Didn’t Want You to Notice

Refugees, workers, rail passengers and a Lebanese transplant doctor. Here is what the federal government admitted in its own documents between Oct. 9 and Oct. 15. Nobody held a press conference.

WASHINGTON — One in four. That is how often immigrants win when they appeal the fines the Department of Homeland Security issues them through its fast-track penalty system. The department published that number on Tuesday, in the same rule that makes sure no judge will ever hear one of those appeals.

That pattern ran through the whole week. In five federal records published over seven days, the government quantified the harm its own policies will cause, then went ahead with them. Each admission is in the Federal Register or a court reporter, in plain sight, where almost nobody reads.

Here they are, ranked by how many people they touch.