Mass Immigration Contributes to Crime

            Immigration advocates have claimed recently that the perception is false that immigrants commit crime at higher rates than native-born Americans. Some even claim that illegal aliens commit less crime than citizens—which indicates that they really don’t think that violating immigration laws is a crime.

            Challenging these claims is study released last week by the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). The report rebutted an argument the immigration advocates often use on crime, namely, that the overall crime level has declined since the early nineties, despite the surge in immigration since that time. The study notes, however, that this trend does not prove that immigrants are committing proportionally less crime than the native-born.

            The report concedes that it is difficult to find firm and reliable figures on the comparative crime rate of immigrants. Nevertheless, it points to particular estimates and findings which indicate that crime by immigrants is at least a significant problem and, particularly with illegal immigrants, a disproportionate one as well. Among them:

            The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates 20 percent of inmates in prisons and jails are legal and illegal immigrants. This compares with a total adult foreign-born population (including naturalized citizens) of 15.4 percent. The DHS also has stated that 11 to 15 percent of the U.S. jail population is made up of non-citizens. Of the total U.S. population, 8.6 percent are non-citizens, i.e., un-naturalized immigrants.

            On the amount of crime committed by illegal aliens (aside from violating immigration law and related offenses), the study cited statistics from the 287 (g) program which allows localities and states to participate in immigration law enforcement. The participating jurisdictions, which admittedly don’t necessarily reflect all localities and states, in general show a disproportionate number of illegal aliens held in custody for crimes.

            Another indicator is SCAAP, the program that allows jurisdictions to receive federal reimbursement for the number of illegal aliens they hold in custody. The study noted that states being reimbursed held illegal alien inmates at levels either equal to or higher than the percentage of illegals in the general population.

            Another indicator of illegal alien crime not noted in the CIS study was the finding of Deborah Schurman-Kauflin of the Violent Crimes Institute in Atlanta. In a study she conducted covering the period between 1999 and 2006, Schurman-Kauflin concluded that illegal aliens committed close to 960,000 sex crimes, a rate higher than the general population.

Also not mentioned by CIS was a study published in 2005 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Of 55,322 illegal alien inmates surveyed, the study found that they had been arrested an average of eight times on multiple charges. Fifteen percent involved crimes against property and 12 percent crimes of violence. The balance of the crimes included other serious offenses such as fraud and obstruction of justice.