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Criminal Stereotypes

Immigrants – legal or undocumented – don't raise crime rates

Some immigration foes attribute rises in crime rates to the influx of undocumented workers. Now one study offers statistics to refute hearsay.

Immigrants – legal or undocumented – don't raise crime rates, and incarceration rates among younger men is lowest for immigrants. These findings come from a report from the Immigration Policy Center, an immigrant-advocacy group in Washington.

In fact, the higher crime rates occur among U.S.-born men; and in a troubling trend which the report calls a "paradox of assimilation," second- and third-generation immigrants show higher crime rates than recently arrived immigrants.

The report adds that the common notion many immigrants are criminals is fostered by "excessive" media coverage focused on crime and gang activity involving immigrants.

The analysis of data from the U.S. Census and police records show that the incarceration rate of U.S.-born men ages 18 to 39 years is 3.5 percent: five times higher than the rate for recent immigrants.

In addition, the study also says that the crimes rates have shrunk even as illegal immigration rates have risen. Since 1994, violent crime in the United States has fallen 34 percent, while property crimes has fallen 26 percent. In that time, the undocumented immigrant population doubled, to about 12 million.

Mesa Police Chief George Gascón says the study is consistent with his law enforcement experience with the undocumented.