May 16, 2019

Undocumented migrants are less likely to commit crimes

located:	USA
editor:	Yair Oded

"They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists,” was the U.S. president’s description of undocumented immigrants during his notorious election campaign. Xenophobic portrayals of unauthorised migrants have since shaped his presidency and have manifested in both venomous rhetoric and draconian policies. A recently published analysis by Pew Research Center debunks the theory that connects undocumented migration with crime – indicating that there is no correlation between the two.

As reported by The New York Times, the recent study by Pew has provided an estimate of changes in undocumented immigrant populations across 180 metropolitan areas in the U.S. between 2007 and 2016, which were then compared by The Marshall Project with statistics about violent and property crime rates during these years. The study found no connection between trends in illegal immigration and crime. According to Pew, even in areas where the numbers of undocumented migrants rose significantly, violent and property crime rates either remained stagnant or experienced a slight decline.

Pew’s study provides further statistical soundness to various local researches done in previous years, which conducted smaller-scale examinations of the connection between undocumented immigrants and crime. A 2018 report by the libertarian think tank Cato Institute compared the rates of crimes committed by native-born Americans with those committed by undocumented immigrants, finding that in all categories the latter commit far fewer crimes than the former. The report indicates, for example, that native-born Americans account for over 90 percent of all the homicide convictions in Texas, while undocumented immigrants are responsible for just over 5 percent.

Such findings are not surprising in the least, seeing as the majority of undocumented migrants cross the border into the United States in an attempt to secure a safer and more stable future for their families. It is also important to mention that unauthorised migrants who are arrested – even for petty crime – will be transferred to the hands of the immigration authorities and face deportation. The prospect of being sent back to their home countries, where many of them face a great deal of danger, and being separated from their loved ones in the U.S. makes it even less appealing for undocumented migrants to commit any sort of crime.

Alas, the president, along with other members of his administration and party, have been attempting to capitalise on the vulnerability of undocumented immigrants and the fear many Americans harbour towards the ‘other’ in order to galvanise support and shore up power. They do so by disseminating myths about the unscrupulous character and malicious intent of migrants, stoking panic among the local population about an ongoing ‘invasion’, and over-emphasising individual cases of crime committed by undocumented migrants.

Just earlier this year, the president declared in a speech that he possesses ‘secret evidence’ showing that unauthorised migrants are more likely to commit crimes and pose a danger to society. While the president touts his 'secret' statistics, Pew is joining the growing base of research institutions that portray a complete opposite reality about migrants and crime, one which they buttress with solid facts.

One of Pew’s study’s fortes is that it concentrates specifically on undocumented immigrants (as opposed to immigrants in general). By doing so, the report dispels the ambiguity surrounding a population that is often hard to compile data on, and is therefore highly vulnerable to misinformation campaigns.  

Photo courtesy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via Wikimedia Commons