Posted on 04/03/2018 5:17:42 AM PDT by Sir Napsalot
An organization that favors lower levels of immigration is challenging one of the most-repeated justifications for “sanctuary” policies — that cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers deters crime reporting to local authorities.
“There is a complete absence of good data on any of this,” said Matthew O’Brien, author of a Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) report, in which he examined the available evidence and found little to back up the claim.
O’Brien, director of research at FAIR, said the argument offered by sanctuary jurisdictions boils down to a basic premise — that illegal immigrants fear ICE and, therefore, don’t report crimes or otherwise assist local police.
"Illegal immigrants aren't afraid of ICE," he said. "I mean, come on, we have DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] kids chaining themselves to the Capitol, refusing to leave."
(snip)
"My experience, is aliens don't want to talk to police for any reason," said O'Brien, former chief of the National Security Division (NSD) within the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS). He said he believes that has more to do with the experience many immigrants had with repressive governments in their homelands.
"A lot of these people come from places where they don't trust the police, generally," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifezette.com ...
(Hat tip: Mark Tapscott @ Instapundit)
Thanks Sir Napsalot.
On all sides of the debate, people make exaggerated and dramatic claims.
Pregnant women with children walking through the desert led by an abusive coyote is the rare exception. It is a fake depiction of illegals.
Likewise, illegals living in fear of deportation is fake news. Out of 12 million illegals, under 1 million are felon murderers, rapists, etc. most likely to be deported. In non-sanctuary cities their odds of being deported are less than their odds of being imprisoned for a second felony.
Of 12 million illegals, over 11 million are not committing murder, rape, etc. Their odds of being deported are less than their odds of being hit by a car, or having many other unpleasant things happen. They are more afraid of the street gangs than of deportation.
They are afraid of local police in exactly the same way and you and I are afraid when we are driving and see a cop car behind us.
Illegals are the perfect proof of John Lott’s thesis, however. They think that the bad guys target them because they are illegal .... and because illegals are most likely to be paid in cash and be carrying cash which is more attractive to the bad guys than credit cards or checks. So illegals practice conceal carry and the bad guys know this and do not attack them as much.
OK, that explains 12 million illegals.
What about the other half of the illegals?
Nobody really knows how many illegals are in the USA. First, define illegal.
In IT I have had co-workers on student and tourist visas. Many others are in an ambiguous grace period. Their H1b or other work visa has expired but they are legally allowed to continue work pending the disposition of their application for renewal or a different kind of work visa ... or pending their future marriage or other basis to get a different status.
Many on tourist visa overstay for a month or two, do not work, and eventually do go back. Many on student visa drop out for a semester, do not work, and do return to college.
Many illegals are seasonal. Historically, in Nov-Dec the net migration is to Mexico and not from Mexico. They come back in March. Others go back and forth many times. A month ago I was talking to a Dreamer who had gone back and forth between Mexico and the US about a dozen times.
So many illegals are illegal for part of a year, but not the entire year. The number illegal at any time during the course of a year is much larger than the number illegal at any given point during the year.
Bottom line, nobody really knows the number. Pew gives the most quoted numbers. Others quote numbers much higher, and much lower.
How to define illegal?
Are they here legally?
If they aren’t, they’re illegal.
A lot of people want a weasel a third class in there, but it’s not that difficult to figure out if they’re here legally, or illegally.
It’s not a myth. It’s a lie.
Bookmark
Bookmark
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.