Posted on 05/20/2007 8:20:07 PM PDT by neverdem
(CNSNews.com) - People who violate immigration laws are more likely to violate other laws, according to an immigration reform group that said the findings differ from previous studies showing that immigrants to the United States commit fewer crimes.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) said these previous studies - especially one last month by the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) - "are misleading because they lump legal and illegal immigrants together."
"The use of that [U.S. Census Bureau] data is virtually guaranteed to demonstrate a lower incidence of criminal activity because of the screening process to which legal immigrants and long-term foreign residents are subjected," Jack Martin, special projects director for FAIR, told Cybercast News Service.
Martin noted that legal immigrants are required to submit police reports and records of any criminal convictions that could exclude them from being issued a U.S. visa. Furthermore, non-immigrants planning to visit the U.S. and applying for a visa are also required to disclose any past criminal activity on their part.
"Our immigration law has a large number of exclusions covering previous criminal activity intended to protect the American public from possible future crime," he said.
FAIR said that "deportable aliens nationwide were nearly twice as likely to be incarcerated for crimes as their share of the population." The group adds that there is "mounting evidence that illegal immigration is directly linked to violent crime in this country."
"IPC, which is part of the network of advocacy groups lobbying for an illegal alien amnesty, is clearly fudging the facts to advance their political objectives," charged Dan Stein, president of FAIR.
"Local law enforcement authorities are correct to be concerned about growing populations of illegal residents because, on average, they are more likely to commit crimes," he said.
"Our failure to control illegal immigration poses a real and documentable risk to the security of the American people," Stein added. "Innocent Americans are often victims of personal and property crimes committed by illegal aliens."
IPC Director Benjamin Johnson defended the group's study and its use of Census Bureau data.
"We didn't distinguish between legal and illegal [immigrants], but we didn't exclude illegal aliens, or undocumented immigrants, in the study. They're in the data analysis as well," he said.
"The findings in our study are consistent with the findings of studies looking at this issue for the last 100 years," Johnson argued. "This is not new information. It is simply a reality that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes."
Turning the criticism around, Johnson took issue with the data FAIR uses from the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP). State authorities use the program to request reimbursement from the federal government for the money spent on detaining illegal immigrants.
"There are two problems with that data, and therefore two problems with FAIR's report," he said.
"Their data talks about days of incarceration," said Johnson. "The problem is we know that many of the same immigrants are picked up two or three times, so the problem with the data is that it counts the same person multiple times. It doesn't sort out whether those days reflect different people or the same people."
The second problem, he said, was the fact that much of the detentions for which the federal government is reimbursing states relate to people who may be deportable for status violations but "have not committed a crime."
"Many people never committed any crime," Johnson asserted. "It's an administrative violation. You have to think of it in terms of tax law - not everybody who makes a mistake on their taxes is guilty of the crime of tax evasion."
Martin defended FAIR's use of SCAAP figures, saying it was "the only data that offers a useful look at illegal status."
See Earlier Stories:
Feds Have Dropped Ball on Illegal Immigration, Say Local Gov'ts (March 1, 2007)
Illegal Aliens Waging 'Silent War' on US, Says Minuteman Activist (Jan. 19, 2007)
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Sure why not?They already committed a crime by being here,so the next crimes should be easy,almost second nature,for them.
Duh...the FIRST crime is the illegal entry.
Crime is common for illegals....they come from a criminal country, and we are an open society.
ILLEGALS are like spoiled children. They have no respect for anyone that won’t force them to toe the line(or our laws). Push is the name of the game and they will keep pushing until someone pushes back with more force than they are using. If we had true border and employer enforcement with real consequences, they would be forced to come in by legal means or stay in their countries and improve situations there..
duh.. 100% of them have committed a crime...
We're gonna look the other way on the 'big crime'... Breaking and entering into our country. It's kinda like a joke or a game you play as a kid.
Now, we want you to following the "other laws"... Not too many cervezas before you drive home... it's the law you see.
And the social security number for work? We don't check!
But you must learn the language if you want to stay? Excuse me... You don't understand. I will explain that to you in Spanish!
nnnoooo! you don’t say... they break a federal law when they jump across the fence. breaking the local laws is peanuts them I guess
100% of ILLEGAL immigrants are criminals.
More Americans killed by illegal aliens than Iraq war, study says
When you start digging into the numbers the only ones that can be sourced with the feds are the number of American murdered in 2005: 16692
I have seen federal numbers for illegals held in jail ranging from 19.3% to 27% of the federal prison population.
Here's a sampling of USA cities wanted for murder. What you'll see is that in big USA cities like LA or NYC most of the murderers are Hispanic. Unknown are the % of illegals. In smaller cities the FBI will post the nationalities of the murderers. About 25% of the most wanted are illegals wanted for murder. This number agrees with the percentage of illegals incarcerated in federal prisons. +-25%Pictures of top 10 most wanted in LA. Up until recent stories about crime in LA posted by the LA Times--the pictures included the nationality of the murderers. They were all foreign nationals and mostly Mexican.
Wanted for Murder in New York City.
Chicago wanted for Murder
Philadelphia wanted for murder
San Francisco wanted for Murder
New Orleans wanted for Murder
Pictures of suspects wanted for murder in Washington DC
FBI USA 10 most wanted. (two of 10 are Mexican nationals)
There are currently no exact numbers on the number of Americans killed by illegals. Part of the reason is that the government deliberately obscures the number. I talked on the phone with the head of statistics for the US Bureau of Prisons. He said his office wasn't allowed to publish the number of illegal alien murderers. Rather they were forced to put legal and non legal residents in the same category. I talked to ICE. They put out detailed numbers on illegal child molestors. However, they put out nothing on illegal murderers.
Part of the reason for the silence on the matter is that there is evidence to suggest that most Americans being killed by illegals are black--as is the suggestion in this LA Times Article.
All that said, it could be argued that if you include the number of illegals in state and local prisons the number of illegals in jail shrinks to 6% of the total prison population. Never the less if you multiply 16692 (the number of americans murdered in 2005) * .06 (illegal alien percent of total prison population) * 4 (the number of years the US has been in Iraq). The result is that more americans (4006) have been killed by illegals than have been killed in the Iraq war.
This point needs to be hammered home. Just as the liberals have hammered home the point about americans killed in Iraq.
To look at other USA cities go here http://stlouis.fbi.gov/ and replace stlouis with the city you want.
Very good point, true. Bears repeating...
You mean laws other than our immigration laws (hence the word “illegal” immigrant)?
WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! TILL YOU RUN OUT OF INK IN YOUR PEN!
Bombard the Democrats as well, especially the ones that ran on an anti immigration plank and the ones in marginal districts who could be vulnerable. keep pounding on them.
http://www.senate.gov/index.htm : follow the instructions to the E mail address for every senator. They still need to be reminded of why they can not pass this POS bill.
Not a surprise. Their entire existence in this country is based on them committing an ongoing crime.
ping
Wow, who’da thunk it.
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