The Myth of Low Immigrant Crime

Why am I the only one asking for the real numbers?

    

With the Biden administration hauling in millions of “newcomers” (the latest euphemism for illegal aliens) from booming economies like Venezuela, Senegal and Haiti, we seem to be getting a Kate Steinle every day.

     Among the recent atrocities committed by Our Greatest Strength is the savage murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley by Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan illegal alien released into our country by the Biden administration. The “newcomer” beat Riley so badly that he disfigured her skull.

     MEDIA ALERT: Time to roll out the fake studies on low immigrant crime!

     The one-man factory producing these studies is Alex Nowrasteh of the libertarian Cato Institute. (Take our country, just don’t raise taxes.) He fudges the data, slaps a false title on his report, and journalists copy his work like they’re Claudine Gay writing a thesis.

     Thus, in its story on the murder of Riley, The New York Times cited "studies" showing "no causal connection" between immigrants and crime. Indeed, the Times said, studies "have concluded" that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S. citizens.

     The article links to 1) Nowrasteh's sham study and 2) a 2017 Times story that cites Nowrasteh's sham study.

     That same day, the Times’ Angelo Fichera ran a “fact check” on Donald Trump’s claim that “the United States is being overrun by the Biden migrant crime. It’s a new form of vicious violation to our country.”

     Fichera’s ruling: “This lacks evidence.”

     His proof:

     “One recently updated analysis by Alex Nowrasteh, the vice president for economic and social policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, found that the homicide conviction rate for illegal immigrants in Texas in 2015 was slightly lower than the rate among U.S. citizens.”

     (If they’re so law-abiding, why are they fleeing the crime in countries full of people just like them?)

     The Nowrasteh "study," and others that perform the exact same error-ridden analysis, is the heart and soul of the immigrants-commit-less-crime scam. If it's wrong, liberals have nothing, and you can go back to believing your lying eyes.

     Needless to say, his study is not merely off by a homicidal illegal or two. He -- and others like him -- aren't even comparing illegal aliens to citizens. They're comparing illegal aliens to a group that includes both illegal aliens and citizens.

     As I pointed out in "Adios, America!" (and apparently will have to keep pointing out for the rest of my life): Texas’ crime data only counts illegal aliens who have already been caught and fingerprinted by the Department of Homeland Security.

     That leaves out a lot of illegals. Is the DHS even fingerprinting migrants at the border anymore? If not, then by Nowrasteh's calculations, illegals’ crime rate in Texas is zero.

     How about we only count the murder convictions of citizens who've previously been fingerprinted by the Denver police? Why would we do that?

     Obviously, a lot of the inmates originally classified as “other/unknown” will later turn out to be illegals. But all these Nowrasteh counts as “citizens.” He had his headline, so why bother updating the data?

     According to the more accurate count of illegals in Texas prisons, they commit 30% more murders than U.S. citizens -- not to be confused with a "slightly lower" rate than citizens.

     Not only that, but the longer inmates are in prison, the more of them will be found to be illegals, whereas the reverse is not true. Consequently, the number of illegal alien murderers continues to grow, while the “other/unknown” -- all of whom Nowrasteh calls “citizens” -- continues to shrink.

     Apart from Nowrasteh’s “study,” the main argument for the peacefulness of illegal aliens relies on “post hoc, ergo propter hoc” reasoning:

     The national crime rate declined since 1980, even as illegals poured in. Therefore, illegals cause crime rates to drop.

     Cities with lots of illegals have low crime rates. Therefore, illegals are law-abiding.

     This is how primitives think. Heard of Rudy Giuliani? Ed Meese? COMPSTAT, California’s three strikes law, the boom in prison construction or the sentencing commission? The cause-and-effect argument about immigration and crime employs the logic of a witch doctor, which may be where this country is headed.

     One September day, New York City was 65 degrees, the skies crystal clear, and 3,000 people were murdered. Therefore, cool, clear days cause mass murder.

     The media seem to think the criminality of immigrants is a critically important fact, judging by how often they wheel out these nonsense studies. But they don’t have the necessary information. There are no such “studies.”

     Why doesn’t the government tell us? The fact that it won’t -- and that the media aren’t asking for concrete numbers -- tells us more than a million phony studies.

     COPYRIGHT 2024 ANN COULTER