This blog post by Alex Nowrasteh, an analyst at the
libertarian Cato Institute, presents an important response to claims about a
supposed “illegal alien crime wave.” In 2015 Fox News tried to counter the
generally accepted research showing that immigrants are less likely to be
convicted of crimes than the native born. Nowrasteh points out obvious errors
in the Fox News report—such
as a common misunderstanding of county jail statistics that we pointed
out in 2008—and shows the questionable reliability of references to a Texas
Department of Public Safety (DPS) report which is not publicly unavailable. (The
references originate in a blog
at the far-right PJ Media site. Rightwing provocateurs Gavin McInnes and Ann
Coulter are responsible for similar distortions
of Texas DPS data.)—TPOI editor
 |
| Rightwingers used dubious stats as "evidence" in debate on Kate's Law (H.R. 3004 |
July 7, 2017
The House of Representatives recently passed the No
Sanctuary for Criminals Act (H.R. 3003) and Kate’s Law
(H.R. 3004) to tighten immigration enforcement in response to the fear that
illegal immigrants are especially likely to commit violent or property
crimes. Both laws stem from the tragic
2015 murder of Kate Steinle by an illegal immigrant named Juan Francisco
Lopez-Sanchez after he had been deported multiple times.
Debates on the House floor over both bills veered into the
social science of immigrant criminality.
The majority
of research finds that immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than
natives and that increases in their population in local areas are correlated
with lower crime rates – even for illegal
immigrants.
Despite that wealth of empirical evidence, a two-year-old
Fox News piece entitled “Elusive Crime Wave Data Shows Frightening Toll of
Illegal Immigrant Criminals” by investigative reporter Malia Zimmerman
was offered as evidence
of illegal immigrant criminality. Ms.
Zimmerman’s piece makes many factual errors that have misinformed the public
debate over Kate’s Law and the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act.[…]
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