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Chapter 4

Illegal Immigration and Crime

“We must fix our broken immigration system. That means stopping illegal immigration. And it means welcoming properly vetted legal immigrants, regardless of their race or religion. Just like we have for centuries.”

—Nikki Haley

What you see

Over 60 percent of illegal immigrants have lived in the US for over a decade. Labor force participation is high, and crime rates are lower than that of US citizens.

Illegal immigrants largely work in positions that an aging and more educated workforce is unable to fill.

In relation to illegal immigration and crime, the major consensus is that immigrants in the US uniformly commit crimes on a lower level than native Americans. This school of thought and studies have been corroborated since the early 1900s. Articles on this point are too many to count when googled.

What you see

The data show that all immigrants—legal and illegal—are less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans relative to their shares of the population. By themselves, illegal immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans.

An estimated 1,926,390 native-born Americans, 106,431 illegal immigrants, and 52,424 legal immigrants were incarcerated in 2017. The incarceration rate for native-born Americans was 1,471 per 100,000; 756 per 100,000 for illegal immigrants; and 364 per 100,000 for legal immigrants in 2017. Illegal immigrants are 49 percent less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans. Legal immigrants are 75 percent less likely to be incarcerated than natives.

Legal and illegal immigrants were less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans in 2017, just as they were in 2014 and 2016. Those incarcerated do not represent the total number of immigrants who can be deported under current law or the complete number of convicted immigrant criminals who are in the United States but merely those who are incarcerated. The younger the immigrants are upon their arrival in the United States and the longer that they are here, the more likely they are to be incarcerated as adults

(Source: Criminal Immigrants in 2017: Their Numbers, Demographics, and Countries of Origin, Cato Institute, March 4, 2019).

Another study, published in March in the journal Criminology, looked at population-level crime rates: do places with higher percentages of undocumented immigrants have higher rates of crime? The answer is a resounding no.

States with larger shares of undocumented immigrants tended to have lower crime rates than states with smaller shares in the years 1990 through 2014. “Increases in the undocumented immigrant population within states are associated with significant decreases in the prevalence of violence,” authors Michael T. Light and Ty Miller found.

That’s just a simple correlation, of course, and it’s well-documented that many factors beyond immigration can affect the crime rate. So Light and Miller ran a number of statistical analyses to more clearly isolate the effects of illegal immigration from those other factors. Among other things, they find that the relationship between high levels of illegal immigration and low levels of crime persists even after controlling for various economic and demographic factors such as age, urbanization, labor market conditions, and incarceration rates.

Our study calls into question one of the primary justifications for the immigration enforcement buildup Light and Miller concluded: “Any set of immigration policies moving forward should be crafted with the empirical understanding that undocumented immigration does not seem to have increased violent crime

(Source: “Two Charts Demolish the Notion That Immigrants Here Illegally Commit More Crime,” Washington Post, June 19, 2018).

The complete picture

Most states and our federal government have kept information and statistics about illegal immigration, crimes committed by illegals, and the costs borne by you, the US payer, out of public view. It is in fact difficult but not impossible to locate accurate crime statistics involving illegal immigrants. The statistics are buried both to suit a political agenda and to avoid public outcry. Once you read this article, you will quickly understand why.

The Pew Research Institute estimates that as of 2014, there are at least 11.2 million illegal immigrants residing in the US. This population comprises approximately 3.5 percent of our country’s population.

Of these, by far, the largest ethnic population, 52 percent, are Hispanics comprised of Mexicans, Central Americans, and Cubans.

Six states—California, Texas, Illinois, Florida, New York, and New Jersey—account for 59 percent of all illegal immigrants residing in the US. The fact that 66 percent of all illegal immigrants have lived in our nation for over ten years underscores our long-standing inability to address the serious problem of our inability to control our nation’s borders.

Research conducted by the federal government oversight organization Judicial Watch in 2014 documents that 50 percent of all federal crimes were committed near our border with Mexico.

Of the 61,529 criminal cases filed by federal prosecutors, 40 percent or 24,746 were in court districts along the southern borders of California, Arizona, and Texas.

The Western District of Texas had the nation’s most significant crime rate with over 6,300 cases filed, followed by the Southern District of Texas with slightly over 6,000 cases.

The Southern California District with nearly 4,900 cases, New Mexico with nearly 4,000 cases, and Arizona with over 3,500 criminal cases ranked third, fourth, and fifth.

The US Department of Justice documents that in 2014, 19 percent or over 12,000 criminal cases filed by prosecutors were for violent crimes, and over 22 percent or 13,300 cases were for drug-related felonies. That same year, the US Sentencing Commission found that 75 percent of all criminal defendants who were convicted and sentenced for federal drug offenses were illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants were also involved in 17 percent of all drug trafficking sentences and one-third of all federal prison sentences.

The US Department of Justice and the US Sentencing Commission reported that as of 2014, illegal immigrants were convicted and sentenced for over 13 percent of all crimes committed in the US.

According to the FBI, 67,642 murders were committed in the US from 2005 through 2008 and 115,717 from 2003 through 2009. The General Accountability Office documents that criminal immigrants committed 25,064 of these murders.

Illegal immigrants clearly commit a level of violent and drug-related crimes disproportionate to their population.

In California alone, over 2,400 illegal immigrants out of a total prison population of 130,000 are imprisoned in the state’s prison system for the crime of homicide.

The pro-illegal immigrant lobby consistently misrepresents the criminal involvement of illegal immigrants as compared to immigrants who legally enter the US and American citizens saying that illegal immigrants commit less crimes than their counterparts. This assertion is false in most cases. Here are the vetted statistics:

In California, there are just over 92 illegal immigrants imprisoned for every 100,000 illegals as compared to 74 citizens and legal noncitizen immigrants. In Arizona, the rate is nearly 69 illegals imprisoned for every 100,000, as compared to 54 citizens and legal noncitizen immigrants.

In New York, over three times as many illegal immigrants, or 169, are imprisoned for crimes per 100,000, as compared to only 48 citizens and legal noncitizen immigrants. Only in the states of Texas and Florida do illegal immigrants commit less crimes than their legal immigrant counterparts (Texas with 54.5 illegals imprisoned per 100,000, compared to 65 legal immigrants and Florida with 55 illegals imprisoned compared to 68 legal immigrants).

Recent crime analysis by both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Texas law enforcement authorities indicates that between June 2011 and March 2017, over 217,000 criminal immigrants were arrested and booked into Texas jails.

In researching the criminal careers of these defendants, it was revealed that they had jointly committed over nearly 600,000 criminal offenses. Their arrests included nearly 1,200 homicides; almost 69,000 assaults; 16,854 burglaries; 700 kidnappings; nearly 6,200 sexual assaults; 69,000 drug offenses; 8,700 weapons violations; over 3,800 robberies; and over 45,000 obstructing police charges. In determining the status of these offenders in the US, it was confirmed by DHS that over 173,000 or 66 percent of these immigrant criminal defendants were in our country illegally at the times of their arrests

(Source: from The Hill April 19, 2017—“The Truth about Crime, Illegal Immigrants and Sanctuary Cities,” by Ron Martinelli, former Spanish-speaking career detective who investigated violent crimes within the Hispanic and other ethnic immigrant communities, also a forensic criminologist who is a subject matter expert in violent crime, who advocates for facts and evidence).

Using newly released detailed data on all prisoners who entered the Arizona State prison from January 1985 through June 2017, we are able to separate non-US citizens by whether they are illegal or legal residents. This data does not rely on self-reporting by criminals. Undocumented immigrants are at least 142 percent more likely to be convicted of a crime than other Arizonans. They also tend to commit more serious crimes and serve 10.5 percent longer sentences more likely to be classified as dangerous and 45 percent more likely to be gang members than US citizens. Yet there are several reasons that these numbers are likely to underestimate the share of crime committed by undocumented immigrants. There are dramatic differences in the criminal histories of convicts who are US citizens and undocumented immigrants

(Source: Crime Prevention Research Center, January 17, 2018—NEW RESEARCH: The impact of illegal aliens on crime rates, data codebook, and “do file”).

GAO examined five states that had large SCAAP illegal alien populations in 2008—Arizona, California, Florida, New York, and Texas. Arizona was the only state where traffic offenses were a substantial percentage of SCAAP illegal-alien convictions. Setting aside traffic offenses, 41 percent of the SCAAP illegal-alien convictions in Arizona were for drug offenses and assault. In California, “about 50 percent of California’s primary convictions related to SCAAP illegal aliens were for drugs, assault, and sex offenses.” Texas had a similar breakdown of SCAAP illegal-alien offenses. In Florida, “about 50 percent of all Florida state convictions of SCAAP illegal alien inmates were for drugs, sex offenses, burglary, and robbery.” And shockingly, in New York, 27 percent of SCAAP illegal-alien primary convictions were for homicide—more than the 23 percent convicted for drug-related offenses

(Source: National Review, “Illegal Immigration and Crime,” January 20, 2018).

Once again, I must digress to address a few issues. There is good news and bad news on the amount of data available to the general public on the internet. The good news is that there is almost an inexhaustible amount of data. The bad news is there is almost an inexhaustible amount of data.

There appear to be two main sources of documentation when applying numbers to the illegal immigration numbers.

The first is the SCAAP (State Criminal Alien Assistance Program), a program that reimburses states and localities for some of the cost of incarcerating illegal aliens and suspected illegal aliens.

State and local entities wishing to get reimbursed for incarcerating eligible criminal aliens submit identification data each year, such as the individual alien’s name and date and country of birth to DOJ by means of a web-based system. DOJ then sends this data to ICE, which researches DHS databases to try to determine the individual’s immigration or citizenship status. For each individual name submitted, ICE reports to DOJ that it (1) verified the individual was illegally in the United States at the time of incarceration (called SCAAP illegal aliens), (2) lacked documentation to confirm an individual’s immigration status (called SCAAP unknown aliens), or (3) verified that the individual was an alien legally in the United States or a United States citizen and therefore not eligible for reimbursement under SCAAP. According to ICE officials, some of the unknown aliens may be in the United States illegally but have not come into contact with DHS authorities, which is why ICE could not verify their immigration status.

The opponents of this avenue claim “the SCAAP aliens are a measure of the stock and flow of illegal immigrants into state and local correctional facilities over a year. SCAAP is used to compensate local communities and states for the costs of incarcerating some illegal immigrants, it is not designed to be used to estimate illegal immigrant incarceration rates”

(Source: CATO Institute, FAIR SCAAP Crime Report Has Many Serious Problems, February 6, 2019).

There are more accusations of the shortcomings in this article. Please feel free to google the article for a more complete analysis.

The second method for obtaining data seems to be from US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS).

The proponents of this system use ACS data to estimate the incarceration rate and other demographic characteristics for immigrants ages eighteen to fifty-four in 2016. Ordinarily collected by or under the supervision of correctional institution administrators, ACS inmate data are reliable; however, the quality of the data for the population that includes the incarcerated was not always so reliable. The response rate for the group quarters population, which includes those incarcerated in correctional facilities, was low in the 2000 census. Recognizing that problem with data collection from the group quarters population, the Census Bureau substantially resolved it in the 2010 census and the ACS, making several tweaks over the years that have continually improved the size and quality of the group quarters sample.

The ACS counts the incarcerated population by their nativity and naturalization status, but local and state governments rarely record whether prisoners are illegal immigrants. As a result, we have to use common statistical methods to identify incarcerated illegal immigrant prisoners by excluding prisoners with characteristics that illegal immigrants are unlikely to have

(Source: CATO Institute, Incarcerated Immigrants in 2016: Their Numbers, Demographics, and Countries of Origin, June 4, 2018).

Peter Kirsanow makes a strong argument in his National Review The Corner article titled “Illegal Immigrants and Crime,” February 8, 2018.

He stands his ground when his data sampling is attacked from Alex Nowrasteh at Reason.

He states,

Nowrasteh states that the 2008 American Community Survey data says there were only 156,329 non-citizens incarcerated in federal, state, and local facilities, and thus it’s impossible that the 296,959 SCAAP incarcerations represent individuals. I’m willing to concede that there may be some individuals who account for more than one SCAAP incarceration. But I’m skeptical that survey data are more reliable than the SCAAP data. Nowrasteh writes elsewhere that the ACS data are reliable “because it’s ordinarily collected by or under the supervision of correctional institution administrators.” But incarcerated foreign nationals have a particular incentive to conceal their citizenship status. It’s unlikely that the process followed by correctional-institution administrators is much more thorough than that followed by DOJ and ICE in calculating SCAAP reimbursement.

Adding to the above, I came cross this fact, five of the top 10 SCAAP grants to localities, and four of the top 10 grants to states went to jurisdictions that are considered sanctuaries in 2010.

1 Los Angeles County*: $14,292,913

2 New York City*: $13,450,977

3 Orange County, California: $5,287,229

4 Cook County, Illinois: $3,382,266

5 Maricopa County, Arizona: $2,819,911

6 Harris County, Texas*: $2,656,448

7 San Diego County*: $2,218,643

8 Suffolk County, New York: $2,176,889

9 Clark County Nevada: $2,127,110

10 Nassau County, New York: $1,971,434

1 California: $88,106,548

2 New York: $17,927,031

3 Texas: $16,049,239

4 Florida: $13,842,030

5 Arizona: $9,775,269

6 Illinois: $5,357,246

7 New Jersey: $4,990,601

8 Oregon*: $4,939,427

9 North Carolina: $4,515,838

10 Massachusetts: $4,257,629

Sources: Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance

* denotes sanctuary jurisdiction

Center for Immigration Studies makes a point in their article.

Subsidizing Sanctuaries

The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, November 4, 2010

“There is an easy fix. Congress should restrict eligibility for SCAAP funding to those jurisdictions that actively participate in immigration law enforcement programs such as Secure Communities, the Criminal Alien Program, or the 287(g) program. These three programs enable ICE, or designated specially trained local officials, to identify and process illegal aliens who have committed local crimes, thus ensuring that at least criminal aliens are not shielded by the local sanctuary policy. Language to this effect has been proposed several times over the years, but was never enacted. It was most recently included in a new bill introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).4 Such a restriction might deter some jurisdictions from opting out of ICE programs, or at least prevent the sanctuaries from grabbing a share of scarce SCAAP funding with one hand while blocking ICE access to criminal aliens with the other.”

Here’s another interesting conclusion from CATO Institute in their article from March 4, 2019, “Criminal Immigrants in 2017: Their Numbers, Demographics, and Countries of Origin”:

Illegal immigrants who arrive between ages 0 and 17 are 286 percent more likely to be incarcerated than those who arrive at later ages, suggesting that illegal immigrants who were old enough to choose to come illegally are more law-abiding than those who were brought here as minors.

We’ll see how this conclusion fares with DACA later in the book.

Here’s something noteworthy from the article done by Peter Kirsanow: Illegal-immigrant crime calculations conveniently and invariably steal a base by leaving out the millions of crimes committed by illegal immigrants related to procuring fraudulent social security numbers, obtaining false driver’s licenses, using fraudulent green cards, and improperly accessing public benefits.

Every time one turns around, there is a venue stating the virtues of the illegal population for stealing or forging social security numbers as it adds to the beleaguered fund and that they themselves will never reap the benefits.