Posted on 09/29/2016 8:15:48 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Immigration only made a brief cameo in Monday night’s debate, but Donald Trump managed to once again falsely connect immigrants to crime.
In response to a question on race relations in America, Trump said:“We have gangs roaming the street. And in many cases, they’re illegally here, illegal immigrants. And they have guns. And they shoot people. And we have to be very strong. And we have to be very vigilant.”
No matter how researchers slice the data, though, the numbers show that immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. But that’s not good enough for Trump’s followers. They firmly believe immigrants make America less safe. What the anti-immigration crowd needs to understand is that not only are immigrants less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans, but they also protect us from crime in several ways.
To begin with, immigrants prevent crime indirectly by simply committing far fewer crimes per person than native-born Americans.
Here’s how it works: imagine 1 out of every 20 people is a criminal. If you are a criminal, you have a 5% chance of bumping into another criminal who tells you about an opportunity to commit a crime or helps you carry it out. When an influx of low-crime immigrants enters the country, they reduce the chances of you making that connection, thus reducing overall crime.
This is one reason why homicides and robberies in the most immigrant-dense cities fell further than elsewhere in the country following a surge in immigration in recent years. It is no surprise that America’s crime rates plunged as immigration surged in the 1990s.
Immigrants also reduce crime rates by infusing new capital into rundown areas. Studies have shown that filling abandoned buildings and fixing up neighborhoods makes residents less likely to commit crimes, and new residents also fill public coffers, which can be invested in better law enforcement.
Buffalo is a good example. Denise Beehag of the International Institute of Buffalo told NPR last year that immigrants “were pretty much the only group that was moving into the West side of Buffalo and taking over those vacant houses and businesses.” Crime fell most dramatically in Buffalo in Bangladeshi immigrant areas—by 70%.
Immigrants also reduce crime in more direct ways. For starters, about 25,000 police officers, detectives and other law enforcement personnel were born in another country, according to the Census Bureau in 2014.USA Today reported last year that more law enforcement agencies across the country are recruiting immigrants to fill vacancies in tough areas and connect with the diverse population.
Immigrant police officers expand the size of the law enforcement labor force, which lowers crime in two ways. First, the sheer number of cops has been shown to have a depressing effect on crime. And second, allowing agencies the ability to hire the best recruit possible increases the quality of their workforce, which further depresses crime.
Of course, immigrants who aren’t cops also stop crimes and save lives. There are another nearly 6,000 immigrants working as firefighters, roughly 14,000 as correctional or probation officers, almost 70,000 working in private security, and nearly 700,000 in medical and health services, including nearly half of all diagnosticians and treating practitioners.
Immigrants are saving lives without much publicity in all of these fields. But even outside of them, news stories abound of immigrants preventing or stopping crime.
Consider two recent cases: Peter Lars Jonsson and Carl-Fredrik Arndt, Swedish students at Stanford University, were cycling home in Spring 2016 when they stopped a sexual assault and apprehended the perpetrator. They provided the key testimony against him at trial. In 2015, Feidin Santana, a Dominican immigrant living in South Carolina, caught a police officer killing a black man named Walter Scott on camera, helping lead to the indictment of the murderer.
It’s not just legal immigrants either. In 2011, Diaz Chacon, a Mexican immigrant without legal documents, stopped an abduction of a 6-year-old girl. Chacon jumped into his pickup and chased the kidnapper until the driver crashed, before pulling the child from the van and returning her to safety. Another unauthorized immigrant acting as a night watchman at a convenience store fended off and shot a burglar in 2008 in Texas.
Moreover, situations in which immigrants provide key testimony against criminals is not at all rare. In fact, there were 76,000 U visas issued from 2008 to 2016 to foreign witnesses to crimes cooperating with law enforcement. Another 120,000 had applied and had applications delayed due to congressional caps on visas.
Donald Trump is not wrong to say that some immigrants can cause crime. But they help make the country safer and more livable.
Bullshit, statistic comparing illegals crime rate, not against Whites, but against White/Blacks.
It is ILLEGAL immigration that angers me.
ILLEGAL ILLEGAL ILLEGAL ILLEGAL ILLEGAL
They are committing crimes that are never solved. This is BS.
The point is not that immigrants commit more crimes. The main point is that 100% of crimes by illegal immigrants would not have been committed if they were not in the USA.
“the numbers show that immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans.”
What they are really saying is fwwer than native born black Americans. That is jut the statistical fact.
Trump never said they did...
He was talking about illegal aliens...
“Here’s how it works: imagine 1 out of every 20 people is a criminal. If you are a criminal, you have a 5% chance of bumping into another criminal who tells you about an opportunity to commit a crime or helps you carry it out. When an influx of low-crime immigrants enters the country, they reduce the chances of you making that connection, thus reducing overall crime.”
What absurdist sophistry. All that the Bangladeshi, etc. immigrants that he’s talking about are doing is pushing the black and (American and illegal) Hispanic street gangs into different parts of cities or into other cities all together. The idea that all these street gangs responsible for most of the murders and much of the rest of the crime in this country simply dissolve when Mr. Kim from Soeul shows up and opens his convenience store is nuts. Why doesn’t he tell us how great the brutal Salvadoran MS-17 is for crime in this country?
“It is no surprise that America’s crime rates plunged as immigration surged in the 1990s.”
What a joke. As if finally starting to really crack down on criminals and gangs weren’t the actual reason for that. These are the same tough measures that the left and libertarians are working to undo as we speak (and surprise, surprise, the murder rate has shot up this year). This writer is actually delusional. How was someone like this who lacks the common sense and reasoning abilities of an average 13 year old allowed to write for a think tank? He either is deliberately pushing manipulative propaganda or he is a self-delusional fool.
ILLEGAL immigrants. Their presence here is a crime, and every other crime they commit should not have happened in America.
They may not commit “more” crimes, but any crime they commit is too many.
The last thing we need is to allow more criminals into this country.
Cascade Mall shooter was not a citizen - but voted in 3 elections!
Cascade Mall Shooter Was Not A Citizen—But Voted In 3 Elections! | The Sean Hannity Show
Just goes to show how easy it is for non-citizens to commit voter fraud.
hannity.com
Has Trump ever said illegal immigrants commit MORE crime than native born people?
I’ve never heard him say that.
I’ve never heard him say legal or illegal immigrants commit MORE crime than native born people.
We should ask people for direct quotes when they say Trump has said this or that. He may have said it, but if he did, why would they not put his comment in direct “quote” form?
>Has Trump ever said illegal immigrants commit MORE crime than native born people?
They do commit more crimes than natives. However, they always conflate legal immigrants with illegals to muddy things up.
Trump never said "more".
ILLEGAL immigrants are criminals by definition.
Whether true or not, has Trump ever said that?
If he had said it, that illegal immigrants (or legal or both) commit MORE crimes than native born, why would not quote him directly saying that?
The question is, did he say it or are they bearing false witness?
If he did say it, he should defend it with facts if he can.
If he did not say it, he should sue them for slander.
We should stop running around defending accusations or statements that were never made in the first place.
True, they do that all the time.
And they also make up statements for Trump that he has never said. That is the first offense.
Tell that to the two dead people in Texas, who were murdered by a 6 time deported illegal alien cockroach
Bullshit. www.ncfire.info will give you all you need to know about immigration and crime, like CHILD RAPE.
Cato has always been an open borders, unlimited cheap labor organization.
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