Tuesday, December 1, 2009

GOVERNMENT DATA IMPLY HIGH IMMIGRATION CRIME RATES - So, why OPEN BORDERS & AMNESTY???

Government Data Imply High Immigrant Crime Rates; Findings Contradict Older Research Showing Low Rates

PRNewswire November 19, 2009
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Center for Immigration Studies has published a detailed report on immigration and crime based on a variety of recently released data, including some obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests. The newer government data implies that immigrants have relatively high rates of crime. This contradicts older academic research that generally found low rates of crime. The overall picture of immigrants and crime remains confused due to conflicting information and a lack of good data.
The report, "Immigration and Crime: Assessing a Conflicted Issue," by Steven Camarota and Jessica Vaughan, is online at http:// cis.org/ImmigrantCrime
Among the findings:
-- The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates that immigrants
(legal and illegal) comprise 20 percent of inmates in prisons and jails.
The foreign-born are 15.4 percent of the nation's adult population.
However, DHS has not provided a detailed explanation of how the
estimates were generated.
-- Under contract to DHS in 2004, Fentress, Inc. reviewed 8.1 million
inmate records from state prison systems and 45 large county jails. They
found that 22 percent of inmates were foreign-born. But the report did
not cover all of the nation's jails.
-- The 287(g) program and related efforts have found high rates of
illegal-alien incarceration in some communities. But it is unclear if
the communities are representative of the country:
-- Maricopa County, Ariz.: 22 percent of felons are illegal aliens;
-- Lake County, Ill.: 19 percent of jail inmates are illegal aliens;
-- Collier County, Fla.: 20 to 22 percent of jail inmates and arrestees
are illegal aliens;
-- Weld County, Colo.: 12.8 to 15.2 percent of those jailed are illegal
aliens.
-- DHS states that it has identified 221,000 non-citizens in the nation's
jails. This equals 11 to 15 percent of the jail population. Non- citizens
are 8.6 percent of the nation's total adult population.
-- The Federal Bureau of Prisons reports that 26.4 percent of inmates in
federal prisons are non-citizens. However, federal prisons are not
representative of prisons generally or local jails.
-- Recent reports by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) and
Immigration Policy Center (IPC) showing low rates of immigrant
incarceration highlight the data problems in many studies. The 2000
Census data they used are not reliable.
-- An analysis of the data used in the PPIC and IPC studies by the National
Research Council found that 53 percent of the time the Census Bureau had
to make an educated guess whether a prisoner was an immigrant. The
studies are essentially measuring these guesses, not actual immigrant
incarceration.
-- The poor quality of data used in the PPIC and IPC studies is illustrated
by wild and implausible swings. It shows a 28 percent decline in
incarcerated immigrants 1990 to 2000 -- yet the overall immigrant
population grew 59 percent. Newer Census data from 2007 show a 146
percent increase in immigrant incarceration 2000 to 2007 -- yet, the
overall immigrant population grew only 22 percent.
-- The "Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities"
shows that 8.1 percent of prisoners in state prisons are immigrants
(legal and illegal). However, the survey excludes jails and relies on
inmate self-identification, which is likely to understate the number of
immigrants.
-- In 2009, 57 percent of the 76 fugitive murderers most wanted by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were foreign-born. It is likely
however that because immigrants can more readily flee to other
countries, they comprise a disproportionate share of fugitives.
-- Most studies comparing crime rates and immigration levels across cities
show no clear correlation between the immigrant share of a city's
population and its level of crime. This is one of the strongest
arguments that immigrants do not have high crime rates. However, such
studies generally measure only overall crime, not crimes specifically
committed by immigrants. Also, a 2009 analysis by DHS' Office of
Immigration Statistics found that crime rates were higher in
metropolitan areas that received large numbers of legal immigrants.
-- From 1998 to 2007, 816,000 criminal aliens were removed from the United
States because of a criminal charge or conviction. This is equal to
about one-fifth of the nation's total jail and prison population. These
figures do not include those removed for the lesser offense of living or
working in the country illegally. The removal and deportation of large
numbers of criminal aliens may reduce immigrant incarceration rates
because many will not return and re-offend, as is the case with many
native-born criminals.
-- Some have argued that the fall in overall national crime rates since the
early 1990s is evidence that immigration actually reduces crime.
However, overall crime rates are affected by many factors. Moreover, the
1970s and 1980s saw crime rates rise along with immigration levels.
-- Overall incarceration rates are also a poor means of examining the link
between immigration and crime. Since the 1970s, the share of the U.S.
population that is incarcerated has grown almost exactly in proportion
to the share of the population that is immigrant. But unless inmates can
be identified as immigrant or native-born this information sheds little
light on the issue of immigrant criminality.
The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent research institution that examines the impact of immigration on the United States.
SOURCE Center for Immigration Studies
Originally published by Center for Immigration Studies.

No comments: