Thread: Reports clash on link between illegals and crime

The Business Journal of Phoenix - April 18, 2007


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Reports clash on link between illegals and crime
The Business Journal of Phoenix - 2:37 PM MST Wednesday, April 18, 2007by Mike SunnucksThe Business Journal
Reports from groups at opposite ends of the immigration debate come to disparate conclusions when it comes to illegal immigrants and crime.

A study by the liberal Immigration Policy Center contends that Mexican and Central American immigrants are not major drivers of crime.

"The problem of crime in the United States is not 'caused' or even aggravated by immigrants, regardless of their legal status," said report authors Ruben G. Rumbaut and Walter A. Ewing in a release of the its findings. "Data from the census and other sources show that for every ethnic group without exception, incarceration rates among young men are lowest for immigrants, even those who are the least educated. This holds true especially for the Mexicans, Salvadorans and Guatemalans who make up the bulk of the undocumented population," Ewing and Rumbaut said.

But the more conservative Federation for American Immigration Reform, says the IPC analysis lumps legal and illegal immigrants into one group and that illegals are more likely to be criminals than those legally in the U.S.

"Adult illegal aliens represented 3.1 percent of the total adult population of the country in 2003. By comparison, the illegal alien prison population represented a bit more than 4.54 percent of the overall prison population," according to a FAIR analysis.

FAIR, which favors tighter immigration and border controls, also finds that illegal immigrants account for disproportionate shares of prison populations in Arizona, California, Nevada and other states.

Arizona is a prime gateway for illegal immigrants, Mexican drug traffickers and other smugglers entering the U.S.



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IPC analysis lumps legal and illegal immigrants into one group

Yeah, I wonder why that is.