Posted on 02/27/2007 10:11:30 AM PST by NormsRevenge
NORTH COUNTY -- A common perception that immigrants are responsible for much of the nation's crime is not supported by evidence, according to a study released Monday by an immigrant rights group.
Violent and property crime rates have dropped 34 percent and 26 percent respectively since 1994. At the same time, the illegal immigrant population doubled to an estimated 12 million, according to the study, called the Myth of Immigrant Criminality and the Paradox of Assimilation.
But critics said the study is biased and based on incomplete Census data.
The authors, sociologists Ruben Rumbaut and Walter Ewing, said immigrants have faced similar perceptions throughout the nation's history. Previous waves of immigrants, such as Italians and Irish, were often viewed as more inclined to crime than native-born people, they said.
Similar views are now thrust upon the newest immigrants, who are predominantly from Latin America, the authors said.
"This myth is not supported by the data and is refuted by empirical data," said Rumbaut, a professor of sociology at UC Irvine.
Researchers said they did not analyze legal and illegal immigrant populations separately, because the U.S. Census data does not ask whether immigrants are in the country legally or illegally.
Based on 2000 Census information, the study concludes that the problem of crime in the United States is not caused or aggravated by immigrants, regardless of their legal status. The study was released by the Immigration Policy Center, a research organization that focuses on the contributions immigrants make the country.
The policy center is a division of the American Immigration Law Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit focusing on immigration.
One of the key findings the study cites is that U.S.-born men, ages 18-39, are five times more likely to be incarcerated than foreign-born men in the same age group. However, the "paradox of assimilation" is that the children of immigrants tend to have higher incarceration rates than their parents, according to the study.
"Their children are another story," said Robert Sampson, a professor of sociology at Harvard University. "They become acculturated. They don't look back at the conditions in Mexico, El Salvador or Vietnam."
Critics of the study said the report is based on faulty data.
Steven Camarota, research director for the Washington D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies, said 2000 Census data for the immigrant prison population was not reliable because of problems in collecting the information. The center advocates stricter immigration laws.
"The process of collecting information from institutions completely broke down" during the 2000 Census, Camarota said.
That doesn't necessarily mean that the study's conclusions are wrong, Camarota added.
"I think it's probably correct that the foreign-born are less likely to commit crimes," Camarota said. But, "It is the children of illegal immigrants (that are likely to commit more crimes) not the illegal immigrants themselves."
Census officials could not be reached for comment Monday.
Gary Walker, who cofounded the North County-based group Predatory Aliens Stop Killing Our Police!, also said the study released Monday is not credible. His group focuses on raising awareness about crimes committed by illegal immigrants.
"It's a very agenda-driven type of report to spin the facts," Walker said.
The facts paint a very different picture, Walker said. He points to a Government Accountability Office report that says 27 percent of the federal prison population is made up of immigrants and other sources that he says point to a larger crime problem, including anti-illegal immigration Web sites, local news and police blotters.
In recent months, many local governments, including the Escondido City Council and the City of Hazleton, Pa., have adopted laws targeting illegal immigration in part due to the perception that immigrants bring more crime to cities.
Bill Flores, a North County civil rights activist and retired San Diego County assistant sheriff, said the study's conclusions are similar to a study he conducted on bookings between 1997 and 1999 at San Diego County jails run by the sheriff's department.
"They only surprise that I saw was the fact that the local picture was such an accurate reflection of the national scene," Flores said.
That study, called "Bookings -- A Study of Persons Detained in the San Diego County Jail System," looked at about 100,000 bookings a year.
The study suggested that immigrants' place of birth had little to do with the type of crime being committed. About 28 percent of the crimes of all the crimes committed by those incarcerated in county jails were violent, regardless of whether they were born in San Diego County, elsewhere in the U.S. or in another country, the study showed.
Activists on the other side of the immigration debate say that the illegal immigrant crime wave is no myth.
Researcher Rumbaut said anecdotal evidence used by some anti-illegal immigration groups is part of an emotional and political response to immigration, but it is not based on scientific research.
"There's not a single authoritative source for those numbers," he said. "Those numbers seem to be pulled out of thin air."
Fixed
But critics said the study is biased and based on incomplete Census data.
Until these propagandists tell us what percentage of the crime was committed by illegal aliens in 1994 and today, the fact that overall crime has gone down is totally and terminally irrelevant!
And even though the victims of illegals aren't the majority of crime victims, don't they count? More proof that to 'Rats and RINOs not all crime victims are created equal.
My take is, most of the Illegals behave themselves also.
My wife is a Corrections Officer. They house mostly Illegals from Mexico in her facility. They are quickly handed over to the INS, who come promptly and deport the ones who do not have criminal warrants or issues to be prosecuted in court. The majority are mostly just looking for jobs and got caught.
Guess those folks don't count.
Well, one can also make the claim that; More Americans are murdered by other legal Americans than all the Illegal Aliens that have ever crossed our borders.
And how would those numbers change if all the illegal immigrants were arrested, hmmm?
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Cold comfort to those Americans (allow me to repeat, Americans) who were killed by illegals. Write the widows and orphans to rwemind them that the life of their loved one is just a small part of the price we pay so that we don't have to cut our own lawns.
So why import more?
Man charged in wreck sent back to Mexico 17 times [DUI with fatality, NC]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1526504/posts
Illegal aliens charged with making fake IDs (North Carolina)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1526974/posts
Hispanic DWI arrests rising (NC)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1399568/posts
http://ag.ca.gov/wanted/info.php
"Violent and property crime rates have dropped 34 percent and 26 percent respectively since 1994. At the same time, the illegal immigrant population doubled to an estimated 12 million, according to the study, called the Myth of Immigrant Criminality and the Paradox of Assimilation."
Let's have a little science lesson on the use and misuse of statistics. Let's say the number of male restroom visits at New York Yankees home games has gone down 34 percent since 1994. Let's add to that a statistic that the number of males attending Yankee's home games, since 1994, has seen an increase in how many of those males are 50 years old. From those numbers can we say the 50-year-old-males attending Yankee home games DO NOT make up a larger % of the average male restroom visitor at those games?
No, we can't. Because the numbers cited don't tell us (a)the total number of male restroom visitors and (b)the % of that total represented by 50-year-old-males, either in the past or now.
That is also the type of thing that the numbers cited about crime and "illegal immigration" don't tell us. But, other numbers do tell us something about crime and illegal immigration, and that is the number of U.S. state and federal prisoners and the % of that number represented by illegal immigrants.
That percentage (illegal immigrants convicted of crimes and serving time), compared to total convictions (whether or not that total is less) is up in every state and up by more than the percentage of the increase of illegal immigration.
Which suggests, that in the framework of generally lower crime rates, those contributing to whatever rate of crime we now have, represent an increase in the numbers and percentages of the illegal immigrants, among the criminals we are currently arresting and convicting. It also suggests that without illegal immigration, the drop in crime would have been/would be even more spectacular than decades past.
Guess they never went to San Diego, Los Angeles or any border town. Bunch of fools.
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Yes, these liberal dolts should spend a few weeks just in the infested areas of Los Angeles...you won't hear from them again.
An illegal immigrant has by definition violated the law. 100% of illegal immigrants commit crime.
As a nine year veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol, I found this study to be totally ridiculous. The study was conducted by a group whose stated purpose is "to educate Amercians about the benefits of immigration." I wonder why these groups always refuse to make a distinction between legal and illegal immigration, and why they completely ignore the devastating effects of illegal alien crime.
My two years of experience in the Border Patrol Criminal Alien Program (BORCAP), and the results of our work completely refute everything in this so called study. Our five man unit prosecuted approximately 100 to 150 CRIMINAL aliens each month. These were illegal aliens that were arrested for other crimes by local law enforcement agencies. This was just for our station alone. Can you imagine if every Border Patrol station had a BORCAP Unit, and if every jail and prison in the United States had immigration agents screening the inmates? In my personal statistics, approximately one out of every three inmates that I interviewed was an illegal alien.
I have provided a link to the Cameron County Sheriff's Department in South Texas (Brownsville, Harlingen, South Padre Island area). Here you will see the photos, charges, and other information about the inmates. If the inmates have the words, "Hold for BORCAP, "Immigration Detainer," or similar wording in their charges, then they are illegal aliens. There were so many new inmates coming in each day that we couldn't even interview the MAJORITY of the inmate population!
I just wanted the public to see how many criminal aliens could be found in just ONE detention facility. The truth is out there...
http://www.co.cameron.tx.us/eagle/HTML/Inmates/ICURRENT.HTM
thank-you for your work protecting our border.
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