They say the best lies are 80 percent true, but this widely-referenced piece of anti-immigration propaganda posted by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) misses that mark: https://cis.org/Camarota/NonCitizens-Committed-Disproportionate-Share-Federal-Crimes-201116 It opens with this... "Many immigration advocates argue that immigrants have much lower crime rates than natives... As my colleague Jessica Vaughan and I pointed in a paper some years ago, however, the picture is far from clear." ...which is NOT true: Not only is it plain common sense that illegal immigrants avoid committing crimes because their arrest might lead to deportation, but also and more importantly there is instead substantial authoritative evidence supporting the facts that immigrants in general and illegal immigrants in particular are LESS likely to commit crimes than other American residents. Here is just one example, which alone proves the point: https://www.cato.org/blog/illegal-immigrants-crime-assessing-evidence The CIS continues with this... "While there are other issues, the biggest problem with studying immigrant crime is that states and localities do not systematically track the country of birth, citizenship, or legal status of those they arrest, convict, or incarcerate. But the federal government does track the citizenship of those it convicts. New data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission [USSC] shows that of those convicted of federal crimes between 2011 and 2016, 44.2 percent were not U.S. citizens — 21.4 percent, if immigration crimes are excluded. In comparison, non-citizens are 8.4 percent of the adult population. Of this 8.4 percent, about 4 percent are illegal immigrants and about 4 percent are legal immigrants." ...which is also NOT true: As the following research shows, with or without immigration crimes excluded, (a) USSC "non-citizen" statistics include more than illegal immigrants, (b) USSC "offender" statistics are not comparable to general population stats, and (c) the US Census Bureau does not (yet) collect citizenship status data anyway. In other words, NONE of the CIS statistics above (44.2%, 21.4%, 8.4& or 4%) provide a logically valid or authoritative basis for assessing the share of all crimes committed by either non-citizens or illegal immigrants: https://docdro.id/ZiIpBdy The CIS then goes on to assert "[it] is almost certain that a majority of the non-citizens convicted of federal crimes are illegal immigrants" and "non-citizens are more likely to commit crimes than citizens" - both of which are baseless claims, the first of which would be baseless even IF the CIS stats were valid. Finally the CIS presents a series of statistics they claim to be based on tables showing convictions "compiled by the Government Accountability Office [GAO] at the request of the Senate Judicatory Committee." But they provide no link to any government website for the supporting GAO document, and the US Senate DOES NOT HAVE a "Judicatory Committee." Be it fraud or faux pas, this is a glaring example of why Media Bias/Fact Check rates the white nationalist Center for Immigration Studies as "questionable": https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/center-for-immigration-studies-cis/ Non-Citizens Committed a Disproportionate Share of Federal Crimes, 2011-16 - DEBUNKED.
https://www.gao.gov/assets/700/693162.pdf Here's a link to the GAO report that CIS cited for their article. You'll find the federal crime conviction statistics on page 86 of the report. You are right in one thing. These statistics don't just encompass illegal immigrants . From the report: The U.S. Sentencing Commission data on non-U.S. citizens includes data on “resident aliens”, “illegal aliens”, “extradited aliens” and “non-U.S. citizens, alien status unknown”. For the purposes of this report, we refer to these individuals as criminal aliens. I don't really know anything about CIS, but the statistics they cite in their article seem to be accurate based off this report. People shouldn't confuse the term non-citizen with illegal immigrant though.
THANK YOU and I am in your debt for posting this. It is obvious why they chose not to disclose that link: The title of their post is: Non-Citizens Committed a Disproportionate Share of Federal Crimes, 2011-16 The subtitle of their post is: 21% of those convicted of non-immigration crimes were non-citizens — 2.5 times their share of the population But their supporting data is for the... Estimated Number and Percent of Attempted or Committed Offenses for Which Criminal Aliens Incarcerated in Federal Prisons from Fiscal Years 2011 through 2016 who had an FBI Number Were Arrested/Transferred by Federal Arresting Agencies from 1974 through 2017 ...which that link discloses. Let me connect the dots: "Non-Citizens", "Illegal Immigrants" and "Criminal Aliens" are three different population segments - and remember that the US Census Bureau does not (yet) track ANY of them; Statistics that apply to any one of the segments "Non-Citizens", "Illegal Immigrants" or "Criminal Aliens" are not representative of the other two; "Commited" is not the same as "Convicted"; and Neither "Non-Citizen" nor "Illegal Immigrant" crimes "Committed" or "Convicted" can be accurately portrayed by the "Estimated Number and Percent of Attempted or Committed Offenses for Which Criminal Aliens Incarcerated in Federal Prisons from Fiscal Years 2011 through 2016 who had an FBI Number Were Arrested/Transferred by Federal Arresting Agencies from 1974 through 2017." Thanks again for the link!
THIS IS A CORRECTED REPOST: THANK YOU and I am in your debt for posting this. It is obvious why they chose not to disclose that link: The title of their post is: Non-Citizens Committed a Disproportionate Share of Federal Crimes, 2011-16 The subtitle of their post is: 21% of those convicted of non-immigration crimes were non-citizens — 2.5 times their share of the population But their supporting data is... Table 13: Percentage of all convictions that were for criminal aliens ...which that link discloses. Here is the table they link to: https://cis.org/sites/default/files/2018-01/USSC Data on Federal Convictions-1(10).pdf In it, they (the CIS) changed the column heading (but not the stats) to say: Percentage of all convictions that were for non-U.S. citizens So let's connect the dots: "Commited" is not the same as "Convicted"; "Non-Citizens", "Illegal Immigrants" and "Criminal Aliens" are three different population segments - and remember that the US Census Bureau does not (yet) track ANY of them; and Statistics that apply to any one of the segments "Non-Citizens", "Illegal Immigrants" or "Criminal Aliens" are not representative of the other two. If the crime rates of a smaller segment (e.g. criminal aliens) are knowingly applied to a much larger segment (e.g. non-citizens), such act I see as malicious and grounds for legal action. Thanks again for the link!