Immigrants less likely to commit crime

Posted By Christine Y. Chen Tuesday, February 26, 2008 - 5:24 PM Share

The Public Policy Institute of California has just issued a surprising new report finding that immigrants to the Golden State are far less likely to commit serious crimes than those who are native-born. The study finds that even though foreign-born residents make up 35 percent of California's population, they make up only 17 percent of those incarcerated. Among men aged 18-40, the most likely to commit crimes, immigrants make up an even lower percentage. Native-born Americans in that age group who were born in the Untied States are 10 times more likely to be in county or state prison than immigrants. Hopefully, the study will put some xenophobia to rest.

EXPLORE:NORTH AMERICA, DRUGS & CRIME, MIGRATION/IMMIGRATION

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GREATESTBUSINESSMAN

11:30 PM ET

February 26, 2008

the word 'departed'

to the country they came from comes to mind.

GABE

11:59 PM ET

February 26, 2008

er, deported?

This also occurred to me, but are enough really deported to account for an 18-point difference between total immigrant population (some of which includes US citizens) and immigrant prison population?

Plus, the study takes this into account. From the Mercury article:

"Kristin Butcher, one of the report's co-authors, said the low rate of incarceration could be linked to U.S. immigration policies, which call for carefully weeding through visa applicants and deporting illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes such as gang involvement and murder."

I don't know where this myth about immigrant crime comes from, because when you think about it, most immigrants come to the US to enter the economy, which is hard to do when you're behind bars. Most immigrants probably go out of their way to avoid trouble, not cause it. And even if the discrepancy found in the study is due to deportation, at least it shows that our immigration policies are protecting US citizens effectively; at least we know that the immigrants who don't get caught aren't committing serious crimes.

TORTMASTER

11:33 AM ET

February 27, 2008

And their children?

Does the study address the crime rates of the children of these immigrants born in America? I understand anecdotally that there is a significant rise in the crime rate of native-born children of illegal immigrants as compared to other native-born citizens, but have not seen studies backing this up.

Bob Gibson

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