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Advocate Says Immigration Does Not Lead To Higher Crime Rates
One of the most pervasive misperceptions about immigrants is that they are more likely to commit predatory crimes than are native-born Americans. The images of immigrant communities filled with crime and violence in movies, television and the news further this misconception - a misconception that for more than 100 years, through independent studies and government commissions, has consistently been found to be untrue. In fact, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes or to be behind bars than are native-born Americans. Since the early 1990s, legal and undocumented immigration to the United States has reached historic highs while rates of violent crime and property crime have declined sharply. Among 18 to 39-year-old men who comprise the vast majority of the prison population, the incarceration rate for native-born Americans is much higher than it is for foreign-born individuals, according to U.S. Department of Justice and Bureau of Justice Statistics. Further, considering every ethnic group, the crime and incarceration rate for immigrants is lower than it is for the native-born. For the past ten years, there has been large-scale undocumented immigration to the United States. This has created significant fiscal and administrative challenges for state and local governments and has complicated the problems of overcrowded schools and inaccessible healthcare in the communities where many immigrants live. However, it has not raised crime rates. The myth, however, still continues and has even flourished in a post-Sept. 11 climate of fear in which terrorism and undocumented immigration are mentioned in the same breath. It was a key rationale for provisions set forth in the 2001 U.S.A. Patriot Act, which authorizes the arrest, imprisonment and deportation of non-citizens without judicial review. Immigration is a national issue that requires uniform federal policies based on accurate assessments of U.S. economic and demographic needs, and it is dangerous for all of our citizens if government decisions are based on myth. For more information on this issue, visit www.immigrationpolicy.org. Benjamin E. Johnson is the Executive Director of the American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF). Prior to that, he was the Director of AILF's Immigration Policy Center. | |||||
