Welcoming first full-time staff member Phil Neff

[Deportation Data Updates]

The Deportation Data Project is thrilled to welcome its first full-time staff member: Lead Data Analyst Phil Neff.

From 2013 to 2026, Phil Neff was Research Coordinator for the University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UWCHR) in Seattle, leading projects including the Immigrant Rights Observatory, which monitors human rights impacts of immigration enforcement and detention in the Pacific Northwest, and the Center's Unfinished Sentences initiative, which uses declassified U.S. government records and other historical sources to produce multimedia reports on cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the context of the 1980-1992 civil war in El Salvador.

Phil helped UWCHR to obtain, analyze, and share various forms of U.S. government data, including the first nationwide dataset of ICE Air deportation flights, individual-level ICE detention data including anonymized unique IDs, and DHS I-213 forms providing fine-grained detail of immigration apprehensions in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington. UWCHR researchers used these and other sources of information to produce reports on topics including local airports' role in deportation flights, human rights conditions at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, WA, and compliance with Washington state immigrant rights laws. In the process, Phil became a leading expert on ICE data, and we’re excited to benefit from that expertise.

Phil collaborates with the Deportation Data Project from his home in Seattle. In his free time, he enjoys collecting records and tapes, playing acoustic guitar, and riding his bicycle absurd distances with the Seattle International Randonneurs.