Blaming immigrants for high crime rates in the United States and Europe is a rhetoric that is getting old—and isn’t backed up by research, according to the Washington-based nonprofit American Immigration Council.

“Immigrants have always been a convenient scapegoat,” Walter A. Ewing, a senior researcher at the nonprofit told the New York Times on Wednesday. “It’s always easy to blame the other group for all of society’s problems…”

While the immigration circumstances of Europe and the United States are obviously different, he said, “there’s a universality to xenophobia, a knee-jerk reaction. It’s fear, lashing out at what you’re afraid of.”

Ewing, along with University of California, Irvine, sociology professor Rubén G. Rumbaut, and Daniel E. Martinez, assistant sociology professor at George Washington University, released a study in July of last year that used census data, FBI data and other statistics to strike down stereotypes about immigrants, the Times says.

One finding is that between 1990 and 2013, the foreign-born population in the U.S. nearly doubled, and the undocumented immigrants population more than tripled, yet violent crimes declined by 48 percent and property crime fell by 41 percent, the Times article says.

The study also showed that more native-born Americans are incarcerated than migrants.

Such findings, the study said, reiterated what other research had confirmed for more than a century: “The overwhelming majority of immigrants are not ‘criminals’ by any commonly accepted definition of the term.”

“An immigrant does not come here to commit crimes and get on welfare,” Rumbaut told the Times. “They come here to work harder than native-born people do.”

Donald Trump should do some reading before he calls all Mexican immigrants (and with that, all Latin American immigrants, because let’s not pretend he knows the difference between Costa Rica, Guatemala, Colombia, Argentina and Mexico), rapists and murderers. 

This article appears in Jan 14-20, 2016.

I was born and raised in Guatemala City, Guatemala. I moved to Tucson about 10 years ago. Since I was old enough to enjoy reading, I developed an interest in writing, and telling stories through different...

13 replies on “Nope, Research Doesn’t Really Link Migrants to Crime in the US”

  1. Entering the country is a crime if you didn’t do it legally so do the math. Let the it rain thumbs down. Truth is right there.

  2. The truth is that it is happening and it shouldn’t be. We are a nation of laws whether you like it or not.

  3. I spent 30 seconds on research:

    Let’s look at a few numbers. You haven’t seen them in the New York Times, Atlanta Constitution, or the Miami Herald, nor have they been featured on NBC Nightly news or CNN. So, the average American is blissfully unaware of them.

    Between 2008 and 2014, 40% of all murder convictions in Florida were criminal aliens. In New York it was 34% and Arizona 17.8%.
    During those years, criminal aliens accounted for 38% of all murder convictions in the five states of California, Texas, Arizona, Florida and New York, while illegal aliens constitute only 5.6% of the total population in those states.
    That 38% represents 7,085 murders out of the total of 18,643.

    Tom Tancredo

    Former United States Representative
    Thomas Gerard “Tom” Tancredo is an American politician from Colorado, who represented the state’s sixth congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2009, as a Republican.

    Your story could be viewed as “crime dropped by citizens” more so than “illegals didn’t do it.”

  4. This didn’t happen?

    “Suspect in killing of San Francisco woman had been deported five times”

    If only one life can be saved…well, except when it’s a ‘golden one’ who did the killing.

  6. You can look at it various ways and come up with the answer you want. The article is broadly correct. However, it doesn’t change the fact that immigration rates are higher than any time in history and are simply far too high and are unsustainable.
    Crime aside, our insanely high immigration rates causes issues like overpopulation, unemployment, and low wages.

  7. 81% of illegals are Hispanic:
    2/3rds of Hispanic AMERICANS oppose amnesty and support deportation!
    http://tinyurl.com/k5pmyq7

    Murder Rate for Hispanics Is Twice the Murder Rate for Whites http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-sugarma…

    47% of ALL gang members are HISPANIC the rest are ALL the other nationalities in the WORLD.

    Latinos accounted for 40% of all sentenced federal offenders
    http://www.pewhispanic.org/2009/02/18/a-ri…

    Hispanics, including both men and women, are twice as likely to see domestic violence. http://www.latintimes.com/hispanic-domesti…

  8. Of course they come for WELFARE or they would have stayed in the first country of REFUGE:

    Immigrants caught at border believe families can stay in US and collect public benefits
    Hundreds of immigrant families caught illegally crossing the Mexican border between July and September 2015 told U.S. immigration agents they made the dangerous trip in part because they believed they would be permitted to stay in the United States and collect public benefits.
    According to internal intelligence files from the Homeland Security Department. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
    http://www.washingtontimes.com/multimedia/…

    Of the 230 first Central American migrants interviewed, 219 cited the primary reason for migrating to the United States was the perception of U.S. immigration laws granting free passes or PERMISOS to UAC (unaccompanied children) and adult females traveling with minors,” the report said. This July 7, 2014 report was issued by the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC).

    41% of native born Latinos believe that unauthorized immigrants come to the US to have babies. http://www.pewhispanic.org/201…

    42% of Latino households are single parent. http://datacenter.kidscount.or…
    53% of Hispanic women have illegitimate births ●http://www.nationalreview.com/…

    Welfare use by Immigrant Households with Children in states where the households have the highest use rates are Arizona (62%) Texas, California and New York (61%) each and Pennsylvania(59%).The study focused on eight major welfare programs that cost the government $517 billion the year they were examined.
    http://cis.org/immigrant-welfa..

  9. Entering the United States illegally or staying after your visa has expired (no matter what foreign country you came from) is against the law, so statistically that makes them law breakers. We are a nation of laws but you and the other bleeding heart liberals that pick and choose the laws can make up any kind of statistics that they want.

  10. I can’t tell if this is desperation or outright delusion.

    If you keep saying it over and over again, does it eventually become true?

    I am beginning to think that either Maria is in a cult, or is a Guatemalan Communist Agent.

  11. Depends on the crime. FGM and first cousin marriage are both (never prosecuted) federal crimes – how many US-born citizens commit them?

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