The headlines, anytime an undocumented immigrant commits a major crime, all scream about this direct relationship between the rise in undocumented asylum/work seekers and soaring crime rates. MAGA-leaners (e.g., Kari Lake’s GOP convention speech) will tell you that Dems are figuring out how to get these south-of-the-border migrants onto the voting rolls. Their unspoken evidence: the GOP-dominated House passed a bill, pretty much rejected by the Democrats in that body, requiring each voter to prove their citizenship as a precondition to voting. I suspect a lot of multigenerational Americans just might have trouble satisfying that requirement, but this requirement does reflect the real reason the MAGA-led House passed the bill: people who are least likely to have such irrefutable proof of citizenship are those in lower income brackets, ethnic or racial minorities… folks least likely to support MAGA white Christian nationalist candidates.
We live in an era where conspiracy theories are treated as factual, where politicians repeat lies with such passion and such frequency that they seem convincing, where most Americans don’t genuinely engage in bona fide fact-checking (simply accepting what their political leaders say on camera or online), where the “facts” they want to be true are immediately accepted if their leaders or their peers say so, and where those inaccuracies jibe with bigoted biases such voters have always held. Indeed, Donald Trump legitimized a treasure trove of bigots and vulnerable voters feeling marginalized by change… that even his vituperatives – like “vermin,” “rapists, murderers, even terrorists” attributed to border crossers, “fine people” attributed to obvious white supremacists, etc. – are now increasingly acceptable in mainstream conversations and reportage… notwithstanding their clear falsity. Racism is out in the open!
The Republican National Convention made “immigrant crime” one of the major platforms of the Trump/Vance candidacy. Numerous speakers joined the candidates in hammering home this “truism,” and calls to “finish the wall,” massive detention and expulsion of undocumented aliens living in the United States – which would include the DACA residents who were brought here by their parents as young children and have never lived anywhere else. Writing for the New York Times, The Morning newsfeed on July 18th, German Lopez tells us:
“Throughout the first three days of the Republican National Convention, officials have highlighted a surge in what they call ‘migrant crime.’ President Biden ‘has welcomed into our country rapists, murderers, even terrorists, and the price that we have paid has been deadly,’ Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas claimed last night. [7/17]. The day before [7/16], Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said, ‘Every day, Americans are dying’ in crimes committed by migrants. Donald Trump has made similar remarks on the campaign trail.
“But there is no migrant crime surge.
“In fact, U.S. rates of crime and immigration have moved in opposite directions in recent years. After illegal immigration plummeted in 2020, the murder rate rose. And after illegal immigration spiked in 2021 and 2022, murders plateaued and then fell…
“Yes, some migrants have committed violent crimes. There are more than 45 million immigrants in the U.S., and invariably some of them — just like people of any other group — will do bad things. Similarly, thousands of native-born Americans commit violent crimes in any given week.
“Trump and other Republicans have suggested that immigrants are especially likely to be criminals. They point to a few anecdotes. But the data shows the opposite: Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes. There are genuine issues with the border and illegal immigration, but more crime is not one of them.
“More migrants, less crime
“If more immigration led to more crime, you would expect that crime rates would spike along with immigration flows, locally and nationally. The statistics would show that migrants were disproportionately likely to commit criminal or violent acts. Instead, the opposite is true.
“New York, Chicago and Denver have had an influx of immigrants in the past couple years. Over that same period, murder rates in those cities have fallen. Similarly, border counties in Texas have lower violent crime rates than the state and country overall, the crime analyst Jeff Asher has found.”
Americans speak passionately about the rising cost of foodstuffs and even restaurant franchises built on cheap, fast food. These same Americans are mostly unwilling to accept menial jobs at any wage – from stoop labor for harvesting to manual ditch digging where construction machinery cannot reach or low-pay childcare or cleaning services for working Americans. These same people seem to miss the point that one of the key reasons prices have gone up and likely to rise fast during a Trump administration is because without this cheap labor, prices have to soar. Think of the cost of new construction in an era of unaffordable housing… with no such immigrants. These MAGA believers also speak about violent cartels, yet miss the point that these cartels got their weapons (including lots of military grade assault weapons), smuggled south across the border from the masses of firearms purchased legally in the United States. We need those “immigrants”… desperately… if we want to keep our quality of life.
I’m Peter Dekom, and I wonder how so many in a nation of immigrants have grown to hate and malign “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
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