The Truth about Crime and Immigration

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While defending the controversial and heinous SB1070 on CNN Wednesday night, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer managed to slip in a short yet significant public acknowledgment that the crime rate in her state is down.

Watch her admission here: 

CNN host John King is referring to statistics from the FBI released recently that  show a decrease in violent crime not only across the U.S., but specifically in Arizona cities and border towns. From the Arizona Republic:

FBI Uniform Crime Reports and statistics provided by police agencies, in fact, show that the crime rates in Nogales, Douglas, Yuma and other Arizona border towns have remained essentially flat for the past decade, even as drug-related violence has spiraled out of control on the other side of the international line. Statewide, rates of violent crime also are down.

It’s curious that the “influx-of-immigrants-equals-an-increase-in-crime” line of thinking is still being held as a legitimate talking point for defenders of SB1070 when police chiefs across the country have spoken out against the law, claiming it will lead to increase crime and create a wedge between law enforcement and the communities they serve.  More than that, it’s been reported that immigrants actually have a far lower crime rate than US-born citizens.

Academics have even shown that immigrant populations actually contribute to lowering crime in major US cities, as recently reported in a study by University of Colorado professor Tim Wadsworth:

“The cities that experience the greatest growth in immigration were the same ones that were experiencing the greatest declines in violent crime,” he said. “While I don’t think I or anyone else will argue that immigration can explain the bulk of the crime drop, it seems like this is an important piece of the puzzle.” – Interview with the Wall Street Journal

While there are certainly individual cases of undocumented criminals committing horrible offenses, the large majority of the immigrants who come to the United States in search of the American Dream are not. 

So why, then, are pundits and politicians still claiming that passing the draconian SB1070 in Arizona is a necessity due to a crime wave when over the past 6 years there has been a considerable drop ?

If anything is to be drawn from looking at a connection between crime and immigration, it clearly points the need for comprehensive reform that provides hard-working people of good moral character a chance at citizenship while keeping those with violent criminal records out.