New Study Finds Undocumented Immigrants in Texas Commit Far Fewer Crimes than Native Born Citizens

Since he first announced his candidacy for President, the centerpiece of Donald Trump's anti-immigration strategy has been to convince Americans that undocumented immigrants are "rapists" drug dealers and murderers. There is a growing body of research that demonstrates that Trump is wrong, and a study released this week provides additional evidence.

Researchers from the conservative Cato Institute examined criminal convictions in Texas for 2017 in order to compare the crime rates of native born citizens, undocumented immigrants and legal immigrants.

Their results show that in Texas in 2017, "illegal immigrants were 47 percent less likely to be convicted of a crime than native-born Americans and legal immigrants were about 65 percent less likely to be convicted of a crime than native-born Americans. The conviction and arrest rates for illegal immigrants were lower than those for native-born Americans but higher than those for legal immigrants. This result holds in just about every case, including homicide, sex crimes, larceny, and most other crimes."

And Cato Institute analyst Alex Nowrasteh has a very simple [and logical] explanation for why undocumented immigrants commit less crime than native born citizens.

News Radio 1200 WOAI: "If they break a law they are arrested, and then they get deported," he said. "That is a much more serious punishment than for native born Americans, so they have much more of an incentive to keep their nose clean," he said."

Research like this is important to undermine President Trump's scurrilous attacks on undocumented immigrants. There are many good reasons to address the status of millions of undocumented workers in America, but their propensity to commit crimes isn't one of them.

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