Thread: Arpaio, Thomas have a good idea

October 10, 2008 |

Arpaio, Thomas have a good idea
19 commentsOct. 10, 2008 12:00 AM

There is, of course, a wide range of passionately held opinions about the enforcement actions of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas regarding illegal immigration.

This column has generally applauded their efforts, except for roundly condemning Arpaio's immigration sweeps as a gross violation of foundational American principles.

However, Arpaio and Thomas are also doing something that should be universally appreciated, although it won't be: They are systematically tracking illegal immigrants as they move through their part of the criminal-justice system.
The relationship between illegal immigration and crime is hotly debated. But, thus far, it hasn't been based on much because virtually no criminal-justice agencies were trying to ascertain the immigration status of those who passed through them.

Arpaio began checking the immigration status of those booked in his jails in April of 2007.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates there are 530,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona. That would make them about 8 percent of the state's population. In fact, Arizona has the highest concentration of illegal immigrants of any state in the country.

According to the Sheriff's Office, since it has been doing immigration status checks, approximately 15 percent of those booked into the jails were illegal.
Thomas recently released a report saying that 22 percent of those convicted of felonies by his office during 2007 were illegal immigrants.

So, according to Arpaio and Thomas, illegal immigrants in Maricopa County represent a much higher percentage of the criminal class than they do of the general population.

These findings fly in the face of the bulk of the social-science literature, which holds that illegal immigrants aren't more inclined to criminal activity than the general population, in fact probably less so.

For example, a study in February by the Public Policy Institute of California got a lot of attention. It found that, although the foreign-born constituted 35 percent of California's population, they were only 17 percent of California's prison population.

Another widely cited study by the Immigration Policy Center, "The Myth of Immigrant Criminality," found that, for the country as a whole, the incarceration rate for the foreign-born was considerable less than that of those born in this country.

These and other studies also point out that crime rates have fallen while immigration has increased, and fallen more in cities with greater immigration increases.

There is a common flaw in these studies: They combine the legal- and the illegal-immigrant populations, looking at the foreign-born as a whole. That's because, as mentioned, virtually no criminal-justice agencies systematically try to determine and track immigration status.

It's clearly possible to posit that disproportionate lawfulness by legal immigrants may mask disproportionate unlawfulness by illegal immigrants.

Homeland Security estimates that, nationally, about 38 percent of the foreign-born are illegal. California has an unusually high rate of legal immigration. Based upon the Homeland Security figures, less than 30 percent of California's foreign-born population is illegal.

The opposite is true for Arizona. Again, based upon the Homeland Security estimate, 57 percent of Arizona's foreign-born population is illegal.

The Center for Immigration Studies pegs it even higher, 65 percent - the highest in the country.

So, what does it mean if illegal immigrants commit crimes at rates less than, equal to, or more than their percentage of the population?

Not as much as either side of the debate believes.

Even accepting the higher rates of criminality found in the Arpaio and Thomas studies doesn't change the conclusion that the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants come to this country to work, not to steal. After all, those convicted of felonies in the Thomas study constitute less than 2 percent of the estimated illegal-immigrant population in Maricopa County.

Moreover, the highest disproportionate criminality is found, unsurprisingly, in activities associated with living in this country illegally.

For example, 85 percent of those convicted of false identification were illegal. The rates of elevated representation were milder in offenses such as burglary (11 percent) and robbery (13 percent).

Now, Arpaio and Thomas have an agenda, and many will question the validity of their statistics. The answer is for all criminal-justice agencies to do what Arpaio and Thomas are doing and routinely check and track the immigration status of those going through them.
After all, it is better to know than to guess.


Reach Robb at robert.robb@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8472. His column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Read his blog at robbblog.azcentral.com.

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