Illegal immigration to the United States and crime

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The issue of crimes committed by illegal immigrants to the United States is a topic that is often asserted by more conservative politicians and media outlets when discussing immigration policy in the United States.

Contents

There is scholarly consensus that illegal immigrants commit less crime than natives. [1] [2] Sanctuary cities—which limit or deny cooperation with the national government in enforcing immigration law—have no statistically meaningful impact on crime, and may reduce the crime rate. [3] [4] Research suggests that immigration enforcement has no impact on crime rates. [5] [6] [3]

Some commentators argue that some of the claims linking immigration to crime are made in bad faith. [7] [8] [9] [10]

Research

Relationship between immigration status and crime

Entering the US without documented permission from the US government is a crime. According to some empirical evidence that disregarded illegal immigration as a crime, immigrants (including illegal immigrants) were otherwise less likely to commit crimes than native-born citizens in the United States. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

A 2020 paper by the Cato Institute found that the illegal immigrant conviction rate in Texas was 45 percent lower than the conviction rate of native-born Texans. Texas is the only state that gathers an arrestee's biometric data through the Department of Homeland Security's system tracking illegal immigrants and that maintains the records of an arrestee's immigration status. [16]

A 2018 study found that undocumented immigration to the United States did not increase violent crime rates. [17] A 2017 study found that "Increased undocumented immigration was significantly associated with reductions in drug arrests, drug overdose deaths, and DUI arrests, net of other factors." [18] A 2017 study found that California's extension of driving licenses to unauthorized immigrants "did not increase the total number of accidents or the occurrence of fatal accidents, but it did reduce the likelihood of hit and run accidents, thereby improving traffic safety and reducing costs for California drivers ... providing unauthorized immigrants with access to driver's licenses can create positive externalities for the communities in which they live." [19]

A 2018 study in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy found that by restricting the employment opportunities for unauthorized immigrants, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) likely caused an increase in crime rates. [20] [21] A 2018 PLOS One study estimated that the undocumented immigrant population in the United States was 22 million, approximately twice as large as the estimate derived from the United States Census Bureau's figures. An author of the study notes that this has implications for the relationship between undocumented immigration and crime, suggesting that the crime rate among undocumented immigrants is significantly lower than previously estimated: "You have the same number of crimes but now spread over twice as many people as was believed before, which right away means that the crime rate among undocumented immigrants is essentially half whatever was previously believed." [22]

According to analysis of the 2010 United States Census, "immigrants to the United States are significantly less likely than native-born citizens to be incarcerated. The authors found that 1.6 percent of immigrant males age 18–39 are incarcerated, compared to 3.3 percent of the native-born... The divide was even sharper when the authors examined the incarceration rate among immigrant men the authors believe likely to be undocumented — specifically less-educated men from El Salvador and Guatemala between age 18–29. ... According to the analysis, these likely undocumented immigrants had an incarceration rate of 1.7 percent, compared with 10.7 percent for native-born men without a high school diploma". [23]

A 2016 study of an effort to reduce crime in North Carolina by identifying and deporting illegal immigrants showed no correlation between increased deportation enforcement and local crime rates. [24]

A 2018 study found no evidence that apprehensions of undocumented immigrants in districts in the United States reduced crime rates. [25]

A 2020 study found that native-born US citizens are incarcerated at higher rates for homicide in Texas than undocumented immigrants. [26]

According to immigration analyst Alex Nowrasteh, and criminologist Barry Latzer, Texas is the only state that tracks illegal immigrants by the specific crime committed. [27] [28] [29] Homicide data are regarded as more accurate than data on other crimes because "a much higher proportion of murders are solved." [29] The Texas data for 2016 showed that the rate of murder convictions in 2016 was 3.2 per 100,000 native-born Americans, 0.9 for every 100,000 legal immigrants and 1.8 per 100,000 illegal immigrants. [27] [28]

Perception

Research suggests that people overestimate the relationship between immigration and criminality. [30]

A January 2024 survey in the U.S. found that 57% of Americans believe migrants lead to more crime, which some experts attribute to anecdotal media stories that lack context. [31] [32] Graham Ousey believes the perception stems from flashpoint events that politicians use to push up the myth that immigrants create more crime. [33] [34] Donald Trump has been the most prominent promoter of the false link between immigration and crime, according to the Associated Press. [35] Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera argues it is a cornerstone of the MAGA platform. [36] [37]

Americans dramatically overestimate the relationship between refugees and terrorism. [38] A 2020 study of media coverage from 1900-2013 found an increasing framing of stories in prominent news media helps to explain the misperception among many Americans that immigration increases crime, such as treating immigration itself as a crime and covering fewer crimes committed against immigrants. [39] A 2018 study found that media coverage of immigrants in the United States has a general tendency to emphasize illegality and/or criminal behavior in a way that is inconsistent with actual immigrant demographics. [40] These findings are consistent with a 2019 study showing that the news covering crime implies that there is a racial or immigration factor based on the stories selected and descriptors of the suspects, creating an inaccurate view of the impacts of immigration on crime, which are not significant. [41] A study of coverage of refugees in the Guardian and the Times in the UK from 2015-2018 found that media portrayals made muslim refugees seem like threats to the economy or security and exaggerated differences between these refugees and the native population. [42]

Political consequences

Research suggests a vicious cycle of bigotry and immigrant alienation could exacerbate immigrant criminality and bigotry. For instance, UC San Diego political scientist Claire Adida, Stanford University political scientist David Laitin, and Sorbonne University economist Marie-Anne Valfort argue:

[F]ear-based policies that target groups of people according to their religion or region of origin are counter-productive. Our own research, which explains the failed integration of Muslim immigrants in France, suggests that such policies can feed into a vicious cycle that damages national security. French Islamophobia—a response to cultural difference—has encouraged Muslim immigrants to withdraw from French society, which then feeds back into French Islamophobia, thus further exacerbating Muslims' alienation, and so on. Indeed, the failure of French security in 2015 was likely due to police tactics that intimidated rather than welcomed the children of immigrants—an approach that makes it hard to obtain crucial information from community members about potential threats. [43]

A study of the long-run effects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks found that the post-9/11 increase in hate crimes against Muslims decreased assimilation by Muslim immigrants. [44] Controlling for relevant factors, the authors found that "Muslim immigrants living in states with the sharpest increase in hate crimes also exhibit: greater chances of marrying within their own ethnic group; higher fertility; lower female labour force participation; and lower English proficiency." [44] Hate crimes and family separation have also been consequences of rhetoric linking crime to migration from Mexico. [31] Individuals who believe that African Americans and Hispanics are more prone to violence are more likely to support capital punishment. [45]

The Dillingham Commission singled out immigrants from Southern Europe for their involvement in violent crime (even though the data did not support its conclusions). [46] [35] The commission's overall findings provided the rationale for sweeping 1920s immigration-reduction acts, including the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, which favored immigration from northern and western Europe by restricting the annual number of immigrants from any given country to 3 percent of the total number of people from that country living in the United States in 1910. The movement for immigration restriction that the Dillingham Commission helped to stimulate culminated in the National Origins Formula, part of the Immigration Act of 1924, which capped national immigration at 150,000 annually and completely barred immigration from Asia. [47]

Procedures

Individuals who are in the United States illegally and who have been convicted of crimes are eligible to be deported under federal law. [48] Research suggests that immigration enforcement has no impact on crime rates. [49] [50] [51]

Sanctuary cities

Crimes committed by illegal immigrants who had previously been arrested or convicted of crimes have been a focus of particular attention. [52] [53] Sanctuary cities—which adopt policies designed to avoid prosecuting people solely for being in the country illegally—have no statistically meaningful impact on crime, and may reduce the crime rate. [51] [54]

Discussion has been particularly intense when an illegal alien has been arrested for a minor offense and is known to be in the country illegally is released because the jurisdiction where he was arrested is a sanctuary city that limits police cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE,) and goes on to commit a new crime. [52] [55] Examples include the 2018 Tulare County shootings, where the suspect had previously served time in American prisons and been deported twice before being arrested on a misdemeanor and released under California Sanctuary Law SB54 the day before he killed two and wounded seven in a spree shooting. [56]

Laws and regulations

Special Order 40 (1979)

Special Order 40 is a directive issued jointly by the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) under Chief Daryl Gates and the Los Angeles City Council in 1979 prohibiting officers of the LAPD officers from questioning individuals for the sole purpose of whether they were in the United States legally. [57] The Special Order was the center of controversy following the 2008 Murder of Jamiel Shaw II by a perpetrator who was a member of the 18th Street gang and an illegal immigrant to the United States. [58] [59] [60] [61] An effort to put a repeal measure on the ballot in 2009 failed. [62] Police Commissioner William Bratton successfully opposed rescinding the Special Order. [57]

Arizona SB 1070 (2010)

The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (Arizona SB 1070,) was enacted by the Arizona legislature in 2010 as a response to broad public dislike of illegal immigration among Arizona voters, and by a widespread belief that a great deal of crime was being committed by illegal immigrants that persisted despite a scholarly consensus that illegal immigrants commit proportionately fewer crimes than American citizens and that crime was declining at the border. [63] Public support for the bill was driven by the March 2010 murder of Arizona rancher Robert Krentz. [63]

Texas Senate Bill 4 (2017)

Texas Senate Bill 4 was enacted in 2017 to block municipalities in Texas from becoming sanctuary cities, that is, to prevent local authorities from refusing to cooperate with federal authorities in enforcing immigration laws by directing police and court officials not to question persons accused of crimes about their immigration status and to ignore requests by federal authorities to hold individuals who are in the country illegally and have been arrested for minor crimes for deportation. [64] Texas Senate Bill 4 also allows police officers to check the immigration status of those they detain if they choose. [64] [65] [ needs update ]

Political debate

“Trump Hypothesis” and 2016 Presidential election

During his presidential campaign Donald Trump asserted that the immigrants are responsible for higher levels of violent and drug-related crime in the United States. A 2016 study was undertaken to test this hypothesis, specifically with regard to immigrants from Mexico. According to the study, "Results largely contradict the Trump Hypothesis: no evidence links Mexican or undocumented Mexican immigrants specifically to violent or drug-related crime." [66]

In July 2015, Donald Trump invited what he terms Angel Families, families who have had a member killed by an illegal immigrant to meet with him. Some had lost relatives in road accidents, others were shot or stabbed, but all had family members who died due to actions taken by what Trump describes as people who never should have been in the U.S. in the first place. The Remembrance Project, a nonprofit that works to draw attention to the victims of crimes committed by illegal immigrants, helped the campaign locate families of victims. [67]

During the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, a political advertisement showing mugshots of illegal immigrants who committed violent crimes in the U.S. alternate with footage of candidate Jeb Bush saying, "Yeah, they broke the law, but it's not a felony.... It's an act of love," [68] [69] is regarded as having played a role in Bush's withdrawal from the race. [70] At a May 2016 campaign rally, Trump told an audience that illegal immigrants “Raped, sodomized and killed" Americans. [71] Jamiel Shaw, Sr., the father of a high school student murdered by an illegal immigrant in 2008, became a spokesman for the Trump campaign. [72]

Trump Presidency

During his presidency, Donald Trump had repeatedly asserted that crimes committed by illegal immigrants to the United States make the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border an urgent necessity. Trump's assertions about crimes committed by illegal immigrants were regularly shown to be inaccurate. [73] [74]

The latest rise in crime occurred in 2020 during the Trump presidency, when immigration was historically low due to COVID restrictions. [75]

2018 midterm election

"One Nation," a political nonprofit supporting Republican candidates, produced an ad showing a masked, knife-wielding man with a voice saying, “We need tough immigration enforcement to keep dangerous criminals out.” [71] Other ads criticized sanctuary cities, something Matt Gorman, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said that many Americans oppose. [71]

2024 election

Some politicians and commentators have criticized the most vocal commentators linking immigration and crime as doing so in bad faith for political gain. [76] [7] [77] [78]

A January 2024 survey in the U.S. found that 57% of Americans believe migrants lead to more crime, which some experts attribute to anecdotal media stories that lack context. [79] [80] Graham Ousey believes the perception stems from flashpoint events that politicians use to push up the myth that immigrants create more crime. [81] [82] Donald Trump has been the most prominent promoter of the false link between immigration and crime, according to the Associated Press. [83] Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera argues it is a cornerstone of the MAGA platform. [84] [85]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immigration to the United States</span>

Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of its history. In absolute numbers, the United States has by far the highest number of immigrants in the world, with 50,661,149 people as of 2019. This represents 19.1% of the 244 million international migrants worldwide, and 14.4% of the United States' population. In 2018, there were almost 90 million immigrants and U.S.-born children of immigrants in the United States, accounting for 28% of the overall U.S. population.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from cross-border crime and undocumented immigration that threaten national security and public safety.

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) is an American anti-immigration think tank. It favors far lower immigration numbers and produces analyses to further those views. The CIS was founded by historian Otis L. Graham alongside eugenicist and white nationalist John Tanton in 1985 as a spin-off of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). It is one of a number of anti-immigration organizations founded by Tanton, along with FAIR and NumbersUSA.

Illegal immigration, or unauthorized immigration, occurs when foreign nationals, known as aliens, violate US immigration laws by entering the United States unlawfully, or by lawfully entering but then remaining after the expiration of their visas, parole or temporary protected status.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stereotypes of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States</span>

Stereotypes of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States are general representations of Americans considered to be of Hispanic and Latino ancestry or immigrants to the United States from Spain or Latin America, often exhibited in negative caricatures or terms. Latin America comprises all the countries in the Americas that were originally colonized by the Spaniards, French, or Portuguese. "Latino" is the umbrella term for people of Latin American descent that in recent years has supplanted the more imprecise and bureaucratic designation "Hispanic." Part of the mystery and the difficulty of comprehension lie in the fact that the territory called Latin America is not homogeneous in nature or culture. Latin American stereotypes have the greatest impact on public perceptions, and Latin Americans were the most negatively rated on several characteristics. Americans' perceptions of the characteristics of Latin American immigrants are often linked to their beliefs about the impact of immigration on unemployment, schools and crime. Latin women are generally hot and make good partners, while latin men are violence sociopaths who should be cut down at the knees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in the United States</span>

Crime has been recorded in the United States since its founding and has fluctuated significantly over time. Most available data underestimate crime before the 1930s, giving the false impression that crime was low in the early 1900s and had a sharp rise after. Instead, violent crime during the colonial period was likely three times higher than the highest modern rates in the data we have, and crime had been on the decline since colonial times. Within the better data for crime reporting and recording available starting in the 1930s, crime reached its broad, bulging modern peak between the 1970s and early 1990s. After 1992, crime rates have generally trended downwards each year, with the exceptions of a slight increase in property crimes in 2001 and increases in violent crimes in 2005–2006, 2014–2016 and 2020–2021. As of July 1, 2024 violent crime was down and homicides were on pace to drop to 2015 levels by the end of the year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sanctuary city</span> City that does not cooperate with enforcement of federal immigration law

A sanctuary city is a municipality that limits or denies its cooperation with the national government in enforcing immigration law.

The relationship between immigration and crime has been a subject of extensive research, political discourse, and public debate. Recent empirical evidence has provided new insights into this complex issue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immigration detention in the United States</span>

The United States government holds tens of thousands of immigrants in detention under the control of Customs and Border Protection and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

There are thought to be over half a million undocumented immigrants residing in New York City. They come from many parts of the world, especially Latin America, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Caribbean. About 70% of them have paid work, in catering, construction, retail, driving, cleaning, and many other trades; at least in catering, their wages tend to be lower than those of comparable workers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals</span> United States immigration policy that protects certain undocumented immigrants

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a United States immigration policy that allows some individuals who, on June 15, 2012, were physically present in the United States with no lawful immigration status after having entered the country as children at least five years earlier, to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and to be eligible for an employment authorization document.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deportation and removal from the United States</span> American legal procedure

Deportation and removal from the United States occurs when the U.S. government orders a person to leave the country. In fiscal year 2014, Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted 315,943 removals. Criteria for deportations are set out in 8 U.S.C. § 1227.

A sanctuary campus is any college or university, typically in North America and Western Europe, that adopts policies to protect members of the campus community who are undocumented immigrants. The term is modeled after "sanctuary city", a status that has been adopted by over 30 municipalities. Proposed policies on sanctuary campuses include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immigration policy of Donald Trump</span> Policies regarding immigration of the Trump administration

Immigration policy, including illegal immigration to the United States, was a signature issue of former U.S. president Donald Trump's presidential campaign, and his proposed reforms and remarks about this issue generated much publicity. Trump has repeatedly said that illegal immigrants are criminals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Homan</span> American law enforcement officer (born 1961)

Thomas Douglas Homan is an American former police officer, immigration official, and political commentator who served during the Obama administration and the first Trump administration, and has been appointed to serve in the second Trump administration. He served as acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from January 30, 2017, to June 29, 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Executive Order 13768</span> Executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump

Executive Order 13768 titled Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States was signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on January 25, 2017. The order stated that "sanctuary jurisdictions" including sanctuary cities that refused to comply with immigration enforcement measures would not be "eligible to receive Federal grants, except as deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes" by the U.S. Attorney General or Secretary of Homeland Security.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement</span> American federal agency

The Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office was a U.S. government agency established within the Department of Homeland Security under the Trump administration in February 2017. President Donald Trump directed it be established by Executive Order 13768. The office was dissolved by the Biden administration on June 11, 2021, replaced by the Victims Engagement and Services Line (VESL).

2017 California Senate Bill 54, commonly referred to as "SB 54" and also known as the "California Values Act" is a 2017 California state law that prevents state and local law enforcement agencies from using their resources on behalf of federal immigration enforcement agencies. The law allows for cooperation between local, state and federal law enforcement in cases of violent illegal immigrants, and is often referred to as a "sanctuary law" due to its resemblance of sanctuary jurisdiction policies.

Federal policy oversees and regulates immigration to the United States and citizenship of the United States. The United States Congress has authority over immigration policy in the United States, and it delegates enforcement to the Department of Homeland Security. Historically, the United States went through a period of loose immigration policy in the early-19th century followed by a period of strict immigration policy in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Policy areas related to the immigration process include visa policy, asylum policy, and naturalization policy. Policy areas related to illegal immigration include deferral policy and removal policy.

Immigration to the United States has many effects on the culture and politics of the United States.

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Further reading