Many studies show that immigrants have lower crime rates than U.S.-born residents.
A new analysis shows that Republicans, including likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, continue to push the racist idea that immigrants bring crime to the United States. The claims turned out to be completely false.
In recent weeks, President Trump and his Republican allies have focused on the story of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from Athens, Georgia, who was murdered late last month by Jose Antonio Ybarra, a Venezuelan immigrant. Republicans have cited Riley's death as evidence that America's already restrictive and inhumane immigration laws need to be further tightened.
However, many studies show that illegal immigrants are actually few more likely to be involved in crimes, including violent crimes, than U.S. residents.
In response to far-right claims about immigration and crime, NBC News He released an analysis of the cities receiving an influx of immigrants as part of Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott's brutal media strategy to bus illegal immigrants to Democratic-run cities across the country. (In at least one case, a 3-year-old child was refused medical treatment on a bus bound for Chicago and died as a result.)
by NBC News An analysis of 2024 data for cities where migrants were transported found that crime levels actually fell in these cities from the previous year.
Graham Augie, a professor of criminal sociology at the College of William and Mary, said: NBC News The report says Republican claims about immigrant crime are false. “There is no evidence that there is any relationship between someone's immigration status and their involvement in crime,” Augie said.
In response to this analysis, the Trump campaign promoted outlandish claims that the data was wrong and that “Democrats” [sic] Cities intentionally don't document crimes committed by immigrants because they “don't want Americans to know the truth.”
Such accusations are not only false, but also contradict data from Mr. Abbott's own home state, which extensively tracks the immigration and citizenship status of arrested individuals.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison study published in 2020 comparing crime rates between illegal immigrants and US-born nationals living in Texas found that US-born residents were many times more likely to commit crimes than illegal immigrants. has also been shown to be high.
U.S.-born residents were more than twice as likely to commit a violent crime and almost 2.5 times more likely to violate drug laws. According to the numbers, U.S.-born residents were four times more likely to commit property crimes and 2.52 times more likely to commit murder than immigrants.
“Criminality among illegal immigrants is a major social scientific concern. However, despite the social and political attention that it receives, extant research has limited the empirical evidence regarding the criminological effects of illegal immigration. “The findings are surprisingly low,” the report said, adding that “crime rates among illegal immigrants are significantly lower than both mainland U.S. citizens and legal immigrants.” ”
“These findings clearly contradict some of the basic assumptions behind strict immigration control strategies,” the study said.
Trump and his Republican allies will continue to vilify illegal aliens due to the fact that immigration is the No. 1 motivating issue for Republican voters, despite a growing body of research that refutes the GOP's claims. Probability is high.
Some polls also show that immigration is the most important issue for voters overall, but they also include “threats to democracy and extremism” within government as a more pressing concern. There was no option to list it as such.If it includes that option like recently Reuters/ An Ipsos poll found that immigration was the top issue for voters (by far the top among Democrats and independent-minded voters), with only Republicans choosing immigration as the most important issue. .