‘Immigrants Bring Crime’ Is a Myth
New America Media, Commentary, Walter Ewing Posted: Feb 22, 2007
Editor’s Note: Government and academic studies prove decisively that the common belief that immigrants, especially undocumented ones, bring criminality is based on a big lie. Walter Ewing is a Research Associate at the Immigration Policy Center. IMMIGRATION MATTERS regularly features the views of the nation's leading immigrant rights advocates.
Among the many troubling aspects of the public debate over immigration is the power of myths over facts. One of the most enduring myths about immigration, despite literally decades of evidence to the contrary, is the belief that immigrants are more likely to commit crime than the native-born.
This myth is so widespread and unquestioned that it has been the catalyst for scores of local governments to consider anti-immigrant ordinances over the past year. These calls to crack down on undocumented immigrants, the employers who hire them and the landlords who rent to them, are framed in part as “anti-crime” ordinances.
The city council of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, for instance, passed an ordinance last September claiming that “illegal immigration leads to higher crime rates” and that the council therefore must protect legal residents of the city from “crimes committed by illegal aliens.”
Because most of the undocumented immigrants in Hazleton and other communities throughout the United States are young men from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and elsewhere in Latin America, who have little money or formal education, it is assumed that they are more likely to commit crimes than the native-born.
Government and academic studies, however, have demonstrated repeatedly for over a century that immigrants actually are less likely to commit crimes than the native-born. Even though immigration has increased dramatically over the past decade and a half, the crime rate in the United States has declined.
Since 1994, the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States has more than doubled to 12 million. Immigrants, both legal and undocumented, now comprise just under 13 percent of the population. Yet, according to the FBI, between 1994 and 2005 the violent crime rate (murder, robbery, rape, assault) fell 34.2 percent and the property crime rate (burglary, theft) dropped 26.4 percent.
Cities with large and growing immigrant populations such as Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Chicago also experienced this downward trend in crime. If immigration—either legal or undocumented—were associated with crime, then crime rates should be rising.
An upcoming report from the Immigration Policy Center further dispels the notion that immigration and crime are connected. Using data from the 2000 Census, the report shows that immigrants are less likely than the native-born to be behind bars. Among men age 18 to 39 (who comprise the vast majority of inmates in federal and state prisons and local jails), immigrants were five times less likely to be incarcerated than the native-born in 2000.
About 3.5 percent of native-born men were in prison, compared with 0.7 percent of foreign-born men. Immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala were much less likely to be in prison than native-born, non-Hispanic whites. Roughly 0.7 percent of foreign-born Mexican men and 0.5 percent of foreign-born Salvadoran and Guatemalan men were in prison, compared with 1.7 percent of native-born, non-Hispanic white men.
These findings are not new. Three government commissions investigated the relationship between immigration and crime during the last era of large-scale immigration to the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when millions of immigrants arrived from Italy, Ireland, Russia, Poland, and other nations in Europe. All three commissions came to the same conclusion: immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than natives.
As the [Dillingham] Immigration Commission of 1911 concluded: “No satisfactory evidence has yet been produced to show that immigration has resulted in an increase in crime disproportionate to the increase in adult population. Such comparable statistics of crime and population as it has been possible to obtain indicate that immigrants are less prone to commit crime than are native Americans.”
Despite a century’s worth of evidence that immigration does not breed crime, the stereotype of immigrants as criminals continues to flourish in the media and among policymakers. Popular movies and television shows often feature gun-wielding, drug-dealing criminals from south of the border. News reports of violent crimes committed by gangs such as the Salvadoran Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) often overshadow the fact that an extraordinarily small number of immigrants are in gangs and that gangs are found in every ethnic group among both natives and the foreign-born.
Adding insult to injury, many politicians regularly declare their resolve to stem the criminal tide allegedly unleashed by undocumented immigrants. Even President Bush, who favors immigration reform that creates more legal channels for immigration to the United States, declared in a May 15, 2006 address to the nation that illegal immigration “brings crime to our communities.”
There is no denying that crime is a serious problem in the United States. But it is not a problem created or even aggravated by immigration. Quite the opposite, in fact. Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes of all types than the native-born. This suggests that crime is linked not to one’s place of birth, but to the many other forces which foster crime in this country, especially in relatively poor communities: high rates of divorce and family disintegration, high rates of alcohol and drug abuse, etc.
The solution to crime does not lie in immigration policy. And the solution to undocumented immigration does not lie in misguided “get tough” policies that scapegoat immigrants as criminals.
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User Comments
Mike/H on Apr 17, 2007 at 10:45:50 said:
The term is illegal alien. There is no illegal immigrant. There is no undocumented immigrant. If they were all forced to have taxes taken out of their wages they would not be so attractive to the employers that coddle them and brag how they are helping the economy. The price of meat has not gone down due to lower wages being paid by Swift, nor has the price of orange juice. The get-tough immigration policy is not so much keeping illegal aliens out, it is in coming down hard the the profiteers of big business that are committing the illegal act of hiring them. Frankly, I would have no problem with making Mexico the 51st state, if they just paid their fair share. The 12 to 20 million illegal aliens are not paying their fair share. We are paying it for them.
Dan on Apr 06, 2007 at 12:57:12 said:
I can't believe some people here honestly believe that we should open our country to these illegal aliens. As has been stated in many previous posts this article is blatently misleading and social propaganda.
Then some people (the 2 previous posts) believe that we should just allow them to stay because they have been here for so long or they could stay if they pay a small fine. What a joke - on taxpayers and LEGAL immigrants. That reward would be no different then allowing a bank robber to pay a small fine, promise not to rob again and then allow him to keep the majority of the money he stole.
We cannot afford as a country to reward illegal immigration. We already have shortages of heating fuels, gasoline, open space, places to put refuse dumps, etc. We have bankrupt hospitals and schools. It costs OVER $10,000 per year, per kid, for public education. We cannot afford to be the worlds provider for services unless we want to substantially lower our quality of life to provide it to the BILLIONS of people in this world who are far worse off then the average illegal alien!!!
Chris B on Mar 12, 2007 at 01:50:56 said:
You are a fool if you think that ILLEGAL immigration in this country is not a problem. I find it funny that you call them "undocumented" immigrants instead of ILLEGAL aliens. If you are so concerned for these people, then please let them live in YOUR house and YOU can pay for everything for them instead of them leeching off of our government programs.
Walter Ewing, you clearly have not lived near a heavily populated immigrant community. It is not somewhere you would like to walk late at night.
The moment you set foot in this country and neglect to go through the proper immigration process, you are A CRIMINAL!
John Boyd on Mar 08, 2007 at 03:08:45 said:
In the year 2000, the population in Texas, the main immigration state for Latin America, was 69% Anglo and Black,
32% Hispanic.
In the same year, the Texas prison population distributed as follows:
Anglo : 46,910
Black : 66,124
Hispanic (legal +illegal) : 38,735
Total prison population : 151,769
Percentages (prison population) :
Anglo + Black : 74.5%
Hispanic : 25.5%
From the above figures it appears that anglos and blacks contribute more to the prison
population , percentage wise, than Hispanics.
In fact the Hispanic prison population is much less, 25.5%, than the overall
Hispanic population of 32% whereas it is higher for anglos and blacks.
meka on Mar 07, 2007 at 01:18:39 said:
Do illegal immigrants bring some crime,yes. Not as much as people believe, but yeah. But so what!!!! So do everybody else. America was no crime free haven before the arrival of these immigrants. Many of these immigrant gangs were brought into existant and revival trying to fight off their American hoodlum counterparts. To the extent that they are worse than the criminal outfit that already exists, they did nothing but improve upon the American models already in existance. The Italian,Irish,Jewish, and Polish immigrants of yore brought their share of organized crime that still exist up to this day in the later generation that are American born. We survived them and we will survive these hoodlums-with some loss- to be real but we will.Some of ya'll posting this drivel are descendants of these same people.They were heckraisers of their day, the only difference between organized crime then and today is that the products are more addictive and destructive and that technology in general, and criminal technology, in particular is more advanced and organized. The WASPY British descendents have gang that exist without official information but some of the people that lived during the Time of the Founding fathers and some of them, were gangsters,rapists,murders, etc. America can do without immigrants adding fuel to the crime wave, but if America did not have these problems there would be, and are, native groups, good and ready to fulfill this role.This would be because all ethnic groups,races, and nationalities have these unsavory characters that are small in miniscule in number and major in destruction. These immigrants have no more of a monopoly on mayhem then anybody else so no need to use crime as a shill to be xenophobic and racist.
Starbuck on Mar 06, 2007 at 05:54:57 said:
This entire article is a complete farce! I'm a Criminology Major one year away from my BS with a 3.97 degree GPA. I attest that illegal immigration DOES -in fact- bring crime right alone with it.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the majority of individuals involved in the criminal justice system (e.g. arrests, convictions, incarceration, probation, and parole) are of extremely low socio-economic status. As such, the vast majority of illegal immigrants coming to this country are ALSO of LOW SOCIO-ECONOMIC status. Thus, many (not most and not all, but many) will eventually find themselves involved at one level or another with our criminal justice system.
Any attempt to argue otherwise to the obvious (i.e. crime statistics, the UCR, NCVS, etc.) reports of low to serious crimes committed by illegal immigrants is just asinine!
Moreover, the high cost/burden put upon not only our criminal justice system due to many illegal immigrants criminal activities; but also upon our health care system EXCEEDS the assumed benefits of cheap labor!
Illegal immigration is a problem for this country and it's going to get a lot worse before it even gets remotely better. We need to stop illegal immigration sooner or later or reap what we sew.
Starbuck
Hollie on Mar 03, 2007 at 09:01:30 said:
Why are so many people paranoid about immigration? The rants on this site further evidence the assumption that most Americans are angry, ill informed, and a bit kooky!
I applaud the editor of this publication. Nice article!
James Eck on Mar 02, 2007 at 12:42:39 said:
Walter and editor, I must disrespectfully disagree with your myth. You need to know that over 25% of our federal prisoners are NOT U.S. citizens but illegals. The first step in the right direction would be for our government to secure and protect our borders and then deport every illegal alien in our prisons to their country of origin. This would immediately solve our problem of overcrowded prisons and save the taxpayers hundreds of millions by not having to build more prisons and train/hire more prison guards. Unfortuunately this is too much common sense and plus the globalist/socialist plotters are having their way with our elected officials.
Tino on Feb 26, 2007 at 04:27:51 said:
"The illegals should be all be arrested and put on probation for a predetermined period, at which time their crime will be [sic] exsponged, and they will be issued citizenship."
That would be a novel idea, too bad violation of immigration law is not treated as a criminal offense, mainly because that would require extending the rights that murderers, rapists, and thieves receive under the 6th amendment to border jumpers. If that were the case, the alleged law breaker might have a fighting chance in court.
"You also ignore thefact that falsifying documents and crossing our border without permission is also illegal."
The article talks about violent crime, you know the kind that truly effects people and is morally wrong. If Congress decided to pass a law next week making requiring all people named James to register with a national registry and you failed to do so, you would be committing a "crime" under your definition. See also comment above on criminal offenses.
"Gus, in response to your comments, you suggest rewarding people who got away with breaking the law. Following that logic, we should drop the statute of limitations on murder to 10 years, or 5 years for robbery, etc. So the longer you've flaunted the law, you should get a pass."
There are only two federal crimes that have no statute of limitations: illegal entry and murder. This means a rapist who hides out for 50 years will serve no time, but a guy who swam the river 50 years ago is deportable. Punishment fit the crime?
"You know, what absolutely ridiculous nonsense. Let's just let people come here, break our laws all because it was convenient for them to cross our borders illegally for their own economic convenience,at the expense of American tax-payers"
So your answer is to ask the taxpayer to pony up billions to buy more helicopters, put up walls, hire cops, raid residences, pay prosecutors and judges, build prisons, etc., b/c our Congress has too few visas numbers and a backlog processing legal immigration applications that stretches back 15 years? That is a great idea!
"I can't believe that this was even printed. Anybody with a brain knows that crime, drugs, prostitution, etc is a direct result of illegal immigration. This article is so wrong. You would have to be blind and dumb to believe this garbage."
You prove arguments with facts not with slander and alarmism.
Guy Pinestra on Feb 25, 2007 at 02:46:46 said:
I'd sure like to see those 'studies' the author refers to. I notice he didn't bother to source his ridiculous claims. I also notice that the author tries to count LEGAL immigrants as part of his 'group'. The discussion is about ILLEGAL aliens who flout the laws already on the books, not immigrants who, by definition, FOLLOW the law to live here.
This blatant manipulation of established facts to come to a completely farcical solution is described in the dictionary as 'propaganda'. Where I went to school they called it 'lying'.
Rich on Feb 24, 2007 at 22:32:34 said:
I can't believe that this was even printed. Anybody with a brain knows that crime, drugs, prostitution, etc is a direct result of illegal immigration. This article is so wrong. You would have to be blind and dumb to believe this garbage.
John Smith on Feb 24, 2007 at 12:22:31 said:
The author must not have ever lived in Pomona, California.
His ability to twist of information is as good as GW Bush's ability to rearrange facts.
Elizabeth on Feb 24, 2007 at 10:48:03 said:
Hey Gus, nice thought, so let's just get those meth users who stole other peoples identities, ruined law abiding citizens lives, and just let them off the hook, give them a job, simply ask them to PLEASE pay some fines for their crime, and then let's erase their record and HOPE they will not get into trouble again. Oh, and while we're at it, I think it would be good for all those drunk drivers who ACCIDENTALLY drove drunk, endangering others lives, let's clean up their record and let them off the hook too!!!
You know, what absolutely ridiculous nonsense. Let's just let people come here, break our laws all because it was convenient for them to cross our borders illegally for their own economic convenience,at the expense of American tax-payers, HECK!! Let's just let them have everything they want, isn't that what you "progressives" think?
Jay J on Feb 24, 2007 at 07:41:40 said:
Wnat the facts on Illegal Immigrant Crime? www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51424
Frank Livingston on Feb 24, 2007 at 03:29:00 said:
The editor stated, “Government and academic studies prove decisively that the common belief that immigrants, especially undocumented ones, bring criminality is based on a big lie. Walter Ewing is a Research Associate at the Immigration Policy Center.” What government and academic studies is he talking about? I have not found a government study yet or any solid statistics. There are none because they do not want them. Let the author of the article or the editor dispute these statistics.
Deborah Schurman-Kauflin, Ph.D. Violent Crimes Institute, Atlanta, Georgia conducted study into this area but I doubt if Walter Ewing or the editor has ever taken the time to read it. Here are parts of it: After conducting a 12 month in-depth study of illegal immigrants who committed sex crimes and murders for the time period of January 1999 through April 2006 , it is clear that the U.S. public faces a dangerous threat from sex predators who cross the U.S. borders illegally. There were 1500 cases analyzed in depth. They included: serial rapes, serial murders, sexual homicides, and child molestation committed by illegal immigrants.
Based on population numbers of 12,000,000 illegal immigrants and the fact that young males make up more of this population than the general U.S. population, sex offenders in the illegal immigrant group make up a higher percentage.
When examining ICE reports and public records, it is consistent to find sex offenders comprising 2% of illegals apprehended. Based on this 2% figure, which is conservative, there are approximately 240,000 illegal immigrant sex offenders in the United States.
This translates to 93 sex offenders and 12 serial sexual offenders coming across U.S. borders illegally per day.
Victims:
Of the 1500 cases reviewed, 525 (35%) were child molestations, 358 (24%) were rapes, and 617 (41%) were sexual homicides and serial murders. Of the child molestations, 47% of the victims were Hispanic, 36% were Caucasian, 8% were Asian, 6% were African American, and 3% were other nationalities.
In fact, 82% of the victims were known to their attackers. The other 18% were molested by strangers. In those instances, the illegal immigrants typically gained access to the victims after having worked as a day laborer at or near the victims’ homes. Victims ranged in age from 1 year old to 13 years old, with the average age being 6.
Offenders:
The average age of illegal immigrants who were sex offenders was 27, but they ranged in age from 16-69.
James H on Feb 23, 2007 at 23:22:03 said:
Gus, in response to your comments, you suggest rewarding people who got away with breaking the law. Following that logic, we should drop the statute of limitations on murder to 10 years, or 5 years for robbery, etc. So the longer you've flaunted the law, you should get a pass.
You and the author completely ignore, or blur, the distinction between legal and illegal immigration. We are talking about illegal immigration. How do we rationalize amnesty when millions of our immigrant citizens came here legally. They stood in line, filed the proper paperwork, learned the language, and followed the rule of law. The invasion we are experiencing now has made a mockery of every legal immigrant, and denies citizenship to those all over the world that genuinely want to become Americans.
In theory, I'll agree, your thoughts FEEL good. In reality, we cannot allow everyone to cross without regard to their background or intentions. In other words, the bad comes with the good. Along with well intentioned people come murderers, rapists, drug traffickers and ID thiefs. I'm frankly tired of the unfair burden that illegal aliens put on our police departments and county jails.
I agree with Wesley Franklin above. The fact is that our porous border will likely, eventually, let a terrorist or group of terrorists into our country. Do you think the Mexican government will be screening out the bad people who enter this country? One of the most corrupt governments on the planet.
Wesley Franklin on Feb 23, 2007 at 01:10:39 said:
\"A LINE IN THE SAND: CONFRONTING THE THREAT AT THE SOUTHWEST BORDER\" Homeland Security Iraq\'s Crossing USA Mexico to establish Cells Senator Mc Cauls Website www.house.gov/mccaul/
Scary Food For Thought how many cells lie dormant today?
James H on Feb 22, 2007 at 23:40:39 said:
Sorry, you haven't convinced me. You pick numbers that fit the outcome you want and don't isolate the numbers reagrding criminal activity by illegal aliens alone. You also ignore thefact that falsifying documents and crossing our border without permission is also illegal. I challenge you to find legal immigrants that condone illegal immigration.
Joseph Brislin on Feb 22, 2007 at 21:58:46 said:
This gentleman needs to wake up and open his eyes to reality. Why do you think there is white flight? It's because people take their instinct and get out of harms way from these illegal, disrespectful criminal aliens.
John Dolittle on Feb 22, 2007 at 11:41:36 said:
The article by Walter E. is T.M.(truth munipulation). Didn't the illegal alien (undoucumented immigrant)come into this Country illegally? Doesn't that mean they are law/breakers? Not only did they bring crime in, they are supported by people who are supporting the crime they committed. The illegals should be all be arrested and put on probation for a predetermined period, at which time their crime will be exsponged, and they will be issued citizenship. During the probation period they will have to report monthly to their probation officer and pay a fee, learn english, and hold down a job.
Gus on Feb 22, 2007 at 04:15:50 said:
Immigration is needed to be seen from humane perspective. Economic migration has been always true from ages.
-->It is true that we have to handle this at root, but at the sametime those who are here for more than 2 years and have adjusted to american lifestyles will be misfit in their own country.
Please give them green cards and choice to work in United States so that they do not get exploited by employers.