“Many researchers crunching the numbers have found there’s no connection between immigration and crime. Some have even found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the U.S.” (CNN’s Catherine E. Shoiche)
As the electoral battles heat up, we see more lurid headlines about undocumented immigrants being “more likely to commit crimes,” along with stories about immigrants supposedly taking jobs and resources away from people already in the U.S. What are the facts?
“In a recent Pew Research Center report about the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, 57% of Americans say the large number of migrants seeking to enter the country leads to more crime,” CNN’s Catherine E. Shoichet noted in an article posted on Feb. 27. But, she said, this idea “flies in the face of years of studies looking at what actually happened after immigrants came to communities across the U.S. Many researchers crunching the numbers have found there’s no connection between immigration and crime. Some have even found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the U.S.”
Alex Nowrasteh of the libertarian Cato Institute wrote on March 6 that his own recent research into homicides allegedly committed by undocumented immigrants in Texas “showed that illegal immigrants have lower criminal conviction and arrest rates than native‐born Americans and that legal immigrants had the lowest of all.”
Meanwhile Daniel Costa and Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute on Feb. 20 refuted the idea that immigrants are taking jobs away from U.S.-born workers. They wrote, “The reality is that the economy does not have a fixed number of jobs, and what we see today is a growing economy that is adding jobs for both immigrants and U.S.-born workers.” They cite what they call “key facts that show immigrants are not hurting the employment outcomes of U.S.-born workers.” These include:
“The unemployment rate for U.S.-born workers averaged 3.6% in 2023, the lowest rate on record. Obviously, immigration is not causing high unemployment among U.S.-born workers.
“The share of prime-age (ages 25–54) U.S.-born individuals with a job is at its highest rate in more than two decades.
“Though the immigrant share of the labor force reached a record high in 2023, immigrant labor force growth is not occurring at an unprecedented rate.
“Immigrants are an integral part of our labor market, filling gaps caused by demographic changes in the United States and contributing to strong economic growth. The immigrants that make up 18.6% of the U.S. labor force are playing key roles in numerous industries and are employed in a mix of lower, middle, and higher-wage jobs.”
Ignore the lies and instead, ask why so many people in the US and other countries are homeless and hungry when so much wealth is in the hands of the few? There’s power in numbers. Our hope lies in our unity.
Bob Lee is a professional journalist, writer and editor, and is co-editor of the People’s Tribune, serving as Managing Editor. He first started writing for and distributing the People’s Tribune in 1980, and joined the editorial board in 1987.
