Citizens around the world are revolting against too much immigration. The revolt is especially profound in liberal Western Europe, where populism has reached a form of nationalism. The European Union itself could well become a casualty, as evidenced by Brexit, and increasingly anti-immigrant governments in previously Socialist countries.
Each area has its own immigrant problem. The UK has to deal with immigrants from Eastern Europe. The near East has to deal with immigrants from Syria and Iraq. Europe has to deal with immigrants from there as well as Afghanistan and Africa. Bangladesh has to deal with immigrants from Myanmar. And we have to deal with immigrants from Mexico and Central America.
According to the national and mostly liberal U.S. media, immigrants commit less crimes. These statistics have been used to support an agenda that is designed to protect or provide citizenships for the Dreamers, the children of illegal immigrants, given a temporary reprieve on their immigration status over a series of two year extensions, so they could stay in the United States.
These extensions continued for over a decade and were most recently extended under the Obama administration. President Trump rescinded the program as of March 5 and left it up to Congress to decide. But March 5 came and went without Congress being able to decide anything, and the courts weighed in to provide another six week extension while this issue was decided.
One of the central liberal arguments to support the Dreamers is that illegal immigrants are less likely to commit crimes. A similar argument has been used to support the illegals and prevent their deportation or any action by Federal agents to find and deport illegals. Liberals commonly refer to the illegals as “undocumented” immigrants, just as they have done in setting up so-called “Sanctuary” cities to protect them from being deported.
But let’s not use euphemisms; let’s be clear that these immigrants are illegally here, and therefore they are rightfully being deported when they are discovered. So now let’s concentrate on what we need to do deal with the illegal immigrants who should not be here, not the “Dreamers,” as liberals like to call them, to evoke sympathy for the lives they have built in America.
Much of the argument of the liberals about the low rate of crime among the illegals is also false or misleading, if one looks more closely at the data. As it turns out, in some states and for some illegal demographic groups, the crime rate is actually higher for more serious crimes, such as robbery, theft, and crimes involving violence. This higher rate is particularly significant, since the illegals are more likely to come from this high-crime rate population, largely because illegals tend to come from a younger demographic from 16 to 35, which is more prone to crime than older groups.
By contrast more settled immigrants are likely to have the lower crime rate frequently attributed to ALL illegal immigrants by the liberals to bolster their argument to keep the illegals here. Thus, a closer look at the data provides support for the government keeping illegals from coming into the U.S. and for being more selective about the immigrants that are permitted to come, such as immigrants who are older, more settled, and well-educated.
In fact, this more limited and selective approach is especially needed now, given that there are now over 65 million refugees around the world, and many of those let into other countries, such as about 1 million let into Germany, have already proved to be a problem for the police there. So just imagine if the U.S. had open doors and just a fraction of these 65 million refugees tried to gain refuge in the United States — just 10% would be 6.5 million.
Obviously that huge number of refugees admitted into the United States would be very destabilizing, given their problems with finding employment, poverty, differences in languages, and being drawn to crime, given a lack of other opportunities. Lately, the U.S. has allowed an average of about 1 million immigrants in a given year and never more than 2 million.
With those considerations in mind, let’s look at some crime stats from Arizona.
A major study about illegal immigrants in Arizona found they had twice the crime rate as other residents, as described by Stephen Dinan in a Washington Times article: “Illegals Commit Crimes at Double the Rate of Native-Born: Study.”
The report was issued by the Crime Prevention Research Center, and it used a previously untapped source of data from Arizona which examined criminal convictions. Among other things the study found that illegal immigrants between 15 and 35 represented less than 3% of the state’s population, but they made up nearly 8% of its prison population.
Moreover, the crimes they were convicted for were generally more serious than just being illegal immigrants. As the author of the report and president of the research center, John R. Lott Jr. pointed out, using the term “undocumented” to refer to illegal immigrants:
“There appears to be a huge difference between the two groups. The type of person who goes through the process to legally immigrate to the United States appears to be very law-abiding versus even the U.S.-born population. The reverse is true for undocumented immigrants — they are committing crimes, and more serious crimes.”
Lott also pointed out that among the nearly 4000 first and second-degree murder convictions, the distinction between the legal and illegal immigrants was huge. Whereas the legal immigrants represented less than 1% of the prisoners convicted of murder, the illegal immigrants represented nearly 13% — much greater than their percentage of the prison population.
He also noted that illegal immigrants had five times the rate of convictions for money-laundering and kidnapping, and they were three times more likely to have convictions for drive-by-shootings.
Moreover, Lott emphasized that the crime-rate for illegal immigrants in the 18 to 35 year old group was especially significant, since many of the Dreamers are in this category and much of the current controversy is designed to gain support for them. He pointed out that the data from Arizona suggested that the illegals’ crime rate was 250% higher than might be predicted by their percentage of the population.
“Tens of thousands of crimes have been committed in this country that would never have happened if our immigration laws were enforced and respected like they ought to be.”
In commenting on this report, Attorney General Sessions pointed out that the illegal immigrants were more likely to be convicted of sexual assault, robbery and driving under the influence. In fact, as he observed: “Tens of thousands of crimes have been committed in this country that would never have happened if our immigration laws were enforced and respected like they ought to be.”
Not convinced? I’ll have more to say about the relationship of immigration and crime in my next post, including some examples of serious crimes by illegal immigrants that haven’t made the news. Certainly, we have plenty of crimes by legal residents — too many crimes, as everyone would agree. But we don’t need to have even more crimes committed by illegal immigrants, who, when the crime statistics are examined more closely, have now been shown to commit a disproportionate share of crimes. And certainly, if a study of statistics in Arizona could show such dramatic differences, it seems likely that similar studies in other states might reflect a similar pattern.
Thus, it’s important to look more closely at statistics to see some of the realities that may be hidden under the surface.
My next post will follow shortly with more stats on immigration and crime. Stay tuned.
