(Mis)Representations of Immigrants, Crime, and Public Safety
Ali, Undergraduate Student (UM-Dearborn) Former President Donald Trump has raised concerns about increasing crime and immigration in the United States. He sought to justify restrictive immigration policies--such as increasing deportations and detentions, building a southern border wall, and dismantling sanctuary cities--as public safety measures to reduce crime. The issue I would like to raise here is the fact that immigration policies which are aimed at crime-control are ineffective because immigrants don't actually impact public safety nearly as much as native-born citizens who already reside in the U.S. It is extremely crucial to survey key research methods about immigration and crime to help enable the public and policymakers engage in a more meaningful policy debate that is rooted in facts. It is statistically demonstrated that foreign-born residents of the United States commit crime far less often than native-born citizens. Therefore, policies that further restrict immigration are not effective crime-control strategies. Scholars have found that immigrants, regardless of legal status, do not have higher crime rates than native-born citizens. In fact, the prevalence of foreign-born individuals among the Latino population helps to explain the differences in violent crimes rates between Whites and Latinos. Research has shown that the influx of immigrants in recent decades has coincided with a significant decline in reported crime rates, which may have been influenced by the growing immigrant population. At the neighborhood level, communities with larger immigrant populations have lower crime rates. Immigrants help lower the crime rate in their communities because of their strong familial ties, their orientation to the justice system, their political participation, and their economic impact. We must eliminate the policies that restrict immigration in the name of crime-control. Notably, we could use statistics and research to prove how the spur of immigration settlement revitalizes the economy due to the increase in economic activity and thus creating jobs. This economic boost makes all residents less likely to engage in criminal activities, further demonstrating to policymakers that restrictions on immigration do not necessarily reduce or stop crime on U.S. soil. References: 1. Ghandnoosh, N., and K. Ghandnoosh. 2020. "Immigration and Public Safety." Sentencing Project (https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/immigration-public-safety/).
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