Are crime and immigration linked?
Despite an angry national debate, most academic research studies, from 1900 on, including a Portland State University assistant professor's work, don't find a connection
FACTBOX

• Studies on immigration and crime
Sunday, May 04, 2008
ESMERALDA BERMUDEZ
The Oregonian Staff

The question comes up often in the immigration debate:

Is there something about being an immigrant -- particularly an illegal immigrant -- that makes you more likely than anyone else to commit a crime?

Check Google and you'll find more than 500,000 responses. The problem is: Whom can you believe?
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A multitude of studies exists on the topic, each with its own set of limitations and caveats, simultaneously touted and debunked by people on various sides of the issue.

Critics of immigration policy lean on a few reports, including one by the Department of Justice, to argue that immigrants and violence are undeniably linked. Most academic research dating to the early 1900s shows otherwise, experts say.

A Portland State University criminologist is among the most recent to explore the idea, examining whether deportable immigrants released from Los Angeles County's jail were more likely to be rearrested than nondeportable immigrants.

"These assumptions need to be tested," said Laura Hickman, an assistant professor at PSU's College of Urban & Public Affairs who co-authored the February report. "It's our job as academics to lend knowledge to policymakers."

How that knowledge is interpreted in a politically charged climate is a source of tension. At first glance, Hickman's work suggests deportable inmates are more prone to re-offend.

But Hickman said a closer look at the data shows that their legal status was irrelevant.

Old suspicions

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Today's generations aren't the first to question whether waves of new immigrants threaten public safety.

Different customs, political histories and, often, lower incomes have historically made new immigrants suspect, said Jake Stowell, a criminologist at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

"A lot of times, folks make the argument that they are a more crime-prone group," he said.
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But studies consistently show otherwise, he said. Similar to findings from the early 1900s, several academics, including Harvard University professor Robert Sampson, are finding that the longer immigrants are in the United States, the more likely they are to engage in violence.

"The fundamental finding was that the first generation is less prone compared to the second and so on," Sampson said.

Other research shows that problems such as public drinking, graffiti, abandoned cars and overall "social decay" are tied to immigrant communities, said Wesley Skogan, a Northwestern University professor.

Criminologists say limited access to records, unreliable data, and a community that lies low can make it difficult to reach definitive conclusions. Everything from the way a question is asked, how the study pool is collected, how the math is crunched and how the conclusion is worded can end up being disputed.

The often fierce debate over whether illegal immigrants exacerbate crime has intrigued criminologists, who are increasingly testing the question in more nuanced ways: between generations, cultures, age groups, places and types of crime.

"People are exploring the issue in more creative and consistent ways -- not just in a handful of cities, but across the nation and across time," said Ramiro Martinez, a Florida International University criminologist.

Tracking study

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Hickman completed her study before arriving at PSU, while she was a researcher at the RAND Corp., a national, nonpartisan think tank.

She followed 1,297 immigrants released in a 30-day period from Los Angeles County Jail -- 517 deportable and 780 nondeportable. She tracked them for a year to see who would be rearrested, how soon and how often. Deportables included immigrants without proper documentation and legal immigrants whose status may be suspended because they were accused of a crime.

A basic comparison of percentages revealed that deportable inmates were more likely to be rearrested -- 43 percent were rearrested at least once compared with 35 percent of nondeportable inmates.
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Hickman tried to find out why. She took into account other group factors beyond immigration status -- age, criminal history, types of charges, race, country of birth. By measuring these pieces individually against the others, she found immigration status had nothing to do with the results.

Instead, she found that rearrests were driven by other common catalysts of crime: previous arrests, a younger age or a previous drug or property charge.

Hickman acknowledges the study's limitations: place of birth was self-reported, high-risk inmates were not included, and there's no telling whether results would hold true if the research were repeated at a different time or place.

The study was meant to take an initial stab at an issue that could be approached from a multitude of angles, Hickman said, not to be conclusive. She chose to focus on the Los Angeles County Jail because a previous contract with the sheriff's department there had left her useful data.

Using that same information, Hickman is moving ahead with one study looking at previously deported inmates and another comparing native-born Americans with illegal immigrants.

Criticisms

Some people see little value in the professor's work, saying it got off to the wrong start.

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"The most significant limitation is that it applies only to minor criminals," wrote Jack Martin, a director with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a national organization that favors stricter immigration control. In its own 2007 study, FAIR found that illegal immigrants are overrepresented in U.S. prisons based on population size.

Jim Ludwick, president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform, said work like Hickman's is biased.

"They set up a scenario where they wanted to make criminals look good by saying neither one is worse than the other and, therefore, what is there to worry about?" Ludwick said, adding it is wrong for illegal immigrants to add to existing crime.
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He said illegal immigrants' attraction to crime is obvious, considering their illegal entry into the country, followed by the use of false documents.

Occasionally, the issue of crime and illegal immigration flares up publicly, as it did last summer when two illegal immigrants were accused of slaying a teenager in Clackamas County. But on a federal level, little research has been done to prove or discredit assumptions.

GAO data

The Government Accountability Office has collected data on incarcerated illegal immigrants, their crimes, arrest records and housing costs.

The Department of Justice last year looked at how many crimes were committed by illegal immigrants released from custody. Out of 262,105 criminal aliens, a sample of 100 cases were reviewed, and 73 of them had re-offended.

The federal study's sample size of 100 cases was too small, said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law.

She said academic studies have consistently shown illegal immigrants don't gravitate to crime more than any other group.

"Some in the Republican Party say that most crime is committed by immigrants, but the facts don't support that," said the California Democrat.

Esmeralda Bermudez: 503-294-5961; ebermudez@news.oregonian.com

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