Thread: The Illegal Immigrant Crime Myth

The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 1, 2009

WASHINGTON - The fury of Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs and other nativists in response to the news that the prime suspect wanted for the murder of Chandra Levy is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador could easily be dismissed as racism. But complicating matters is that most Americans probably agree with them.

The immigration restrictionists point to Salvadoran Ingmar Guandique, who is in prison for knife attacks against two other women, as an example of illegal immigrant crime run amok. "About a half-million serious crimes have been committed by illegal aliens over the past 10 years," declared O'Reilly.

Some polls show that as many as three-fourths of Americans believe that immigrants cause crime to rise. Crime by illegal immigrants in particular has stirred such unease that even liberal communities such as San Francisco and the Washington suburb of Montgomery County, Md., known for providing sanctuary to the undocumented, are now moving to turn in some felony suspects to immigration authorities.

But in all the furor, there is this hitch: The perception of high crime rates by illegal immigrants is pure myth. And it is misdirecting public policy about what we really should do to stop illegal immigration. A century of studies has consistently shown that recent immigrants are in fact less likely to commit a crime or be in jail than native Americans.

The last comprehensive national report, by Ruben G. Rumbaut, Walter A. Ewing and the American Immigration Law Foundation, found two years ago that while the number of unauthorized Latino immigrants in the country doubled between 1994 and 2005, violent crime during the same period dropped nearly 35 percent.

Other studies show that the drop fell faster in major illegal immigrant destinations such as Los Angeles and New York than in cities with lower immigration rates. Rumbaut and Ewing reported that U.S-born men ages 18-39 were five times more likely to be in jail than foreign-born ones, even though nearly 30 percent of those foreign-born were here illegally and often jailed for only that offense.

In California, home to the largest illegal immigrant Latino population, immigrants in 2005 made up about 35 percent of California's adult population but accounted for only 17 percent of the prison population, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

What researchers also have found is a Latino paradox: Their incarceration rates go up one generation to the next. Most Latino crime, in other words, is learned here. It is due to higher rates of family disintegration, drug and alcohol addiction, and gang membership.

To be sure, some illegal immigrants join gangs and are involved in the drug trade. But this is a phenomenon that would exist regardless of there being 12 million illegal immigrants here.

For the overwhelming number of illegal immigrants who are law-abiding and have come to the U.S. merely to work, the solution lies in comprehensive reform that imposes controls, but also responds to labor demand by opening pathways to legal temporary work and citizenship.

Edward Schumacher-Matos' columns are distributed by Washington Post Writers Group.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/mar/01 ... rime-myth/

Check out the comments at the link. Seems like the readers don't think it's a "myth".

Originally Posted by PatrioticMe

Check out the comments at the link. Seems like the readers don't think it's a "myth".

Example:

Posted by ( catherwood ) on 03/01/2009 at 05:47 am.

Well, I don't know about the rest of the USA but illegal immigrants have certainly reeked havoc on my small central Florida county. Our much loved local veterenarian had his throat slit by an illegal who is now hold in Mexico and local law cannot extridite him. Our new junior high school was wrecked by two illegals who were going through gang initiation rituals; they did $45 k worth of damage and at the end of their spree tore down an American flag and urinated on it---we have the video. One illegal broke into and raped a local woman, got away and then returned and tried to doit again. One of my good friend's sisters, a blind woman who taught sign language, was killed instantly when an illegal alien drove the wrong way down a four lane highway and hit her head on; a bottle of booze was in his lap. Local authorities broke up a prostitution ring in a local trailer park run by ganbangers who brought young girls in from over the border. The local sheriff's department has deputies especially assigned to try and stop the local meth dealers who are known to be illegal Nicaraguan gangsters; they have arrested a few of them who were all illegal but had Florida drivers licenses...go figure. Sure, Rush and O'Reilly are wrong;the left-wing newspapers are always right. All these crimes are just exaggerations of the right wing conspiracy people who hate illegal immigrants....who could doubt the editorialists at the mighty Tampa Tribune.

WASHINGTON - The fury of Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs and other nativists in response to the news that the prime suspect wanted for the murder of Chandra Levy is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador could easily be dismissed as racism. But complicating matters is that most Americans probably agree with them.

The first words out of this reporter's mouth is racism. Now we are racists if we don't like the crime committed by illegal aliens? Buddy, you better get a grip. These crimes are 100% preventable, and even one crime by an illegal alien is too many. He admits our jails are full of these criminals, yet to him it's no big deal? I guess now we're to excuse illegal aliens of their violent crimes, too. This entire issue has gotten way out of hand.

I think that a lot of the situation is that crimes are enumerated on a forum like this without a comparison with what the level is among Americans with a similar level of education and poverty. There is also no mention here of how many crimes are committed against the illegal aliens. At the same time the apologists for the illegal aliens make no distinction between the legal and the illegal describing both as "immigrants". A legal Latino college professor or other professional is not more likely to commit crimes than his neighbor in the professions who was born here. The presence of a large number of the illegal aliens economically marginalizes everyone among the less skilled and leads to acts of desperation.

Originally Posted by PatrioticMe

Edward Schumacher-Matos' columns are distributed by Washington Post Writers Group.

What do you expect coming from the Washington Post. It's little wonder this liberal rag is in financial trouble suffering huge revenue loses last year.

We all know that Illegals are criminals from the on-set of coming into our country and/or over staying their visa's. And it's all down hill from there.......most steal documents to get welfare benefits, and then they work under the table and undercut the American workers. While stealing money from the American tax payers to accomodate their social needs. Many sell drugs and even more take drugs. They bring disease, chaos and crime into our neighborhoods. And on top of that they are arrogant and think somehow it is their God-given right to steal, lie, cheat and demand things from us. And if we object, they call us racists.

Anyone that questions the impact of illegals on crime rate only has to do a little reseach to get the answer. Look up demographic data, you won't get an accurate reading from state demographics by looking at Hispanic and other race and adding them together, as was done in the past. So you can go to schools, colleges, welfare offices, social services, and hosptials to get the numbers of illegals that have used those instituitons and catagorize the time frame. The compiled info. tells you where illegals primarily reside. Then go to the police blotter crime records, and then go to the hospitals, and the researcher will begin to see a pattern. The type, and amount of crime will astound the most seasoned researcher.

Yes, the researcher will find that Illegals bring serious crime and disease and they destroy everythng that they touch. My hypothesis is that illegals probably have learned to be criminals from a Gov't and society that rewards corruption.

Richard, your point about American Hispanics being victims of illegals, is well-taken and needs to be understood. In fact, Illegals specifically target American Hispanics more than any other group. I feel very badly for American Hispanics because many do not voice their objections to illegals invading this country, consequently many Americans think that American Hispanics support illegals. I would like to see more American Hispanics speaking out against illegals. I love the web site and admire the brave people from http://dontspeakforme.org/ They understand the situation.

There are many ways to differentiate data as to legal vs illegal people of Hispanic ancestry. One way, you won't do it is by the media and/or the Census.

For the overwhelming number of illegal immigrants who are law-abiding and have come to the U.S. merely to work,

You said it Edward. And I see you did use the correct verbage"illegal".So if they are illegal that means they have ALREADY broken the laws ,SO do not call them Law abiding.

If they are working(in most cases illegally) that means they have false papers and documents. So do NOT call them law abiding.

If they are driving they usually have false papers. So do NoT call them law abiding.

If they are collecting social benefits then they more then likely have false papers. So do NOT call them law abiding.

Some use invalid or stolen SSN's for various reasons of usage. So do NO call them law abiding.

I don't mean to be-labor the point, however, in reference to my little reearch project, after the researcher gathers the information, they can then, do a comparison between communites of all and/or specified races, that are not illegal, to speficific American Hispanic communities, and to other poor illegals neighborhood.

The reasearch does bear out the fact, that the the lack of respect in the Hispanic illegals population is expressed in terms of higher and more serious incidences of crime rate in the neighborhoods and communities in which they reside.

Most Latino crime, in other words, is learned here. It is due to higher rates of family disintegration, drug and alcohol addiction, and gang membership.

So send them all the hell back to their countries if we are such a bad influence on their people!