ANNA FLAGG @ NY TIMES: More Bad News For White Nationalist Restrictionists: No Evidence Supports Bogus Claim Of Connection Between Undocumented Aliens & Crime! — “They tend to bring economic and cultural benefits to their communities. They typically come to America to find work, not to commit crimes.”

For years, all reputable statistical analyses have shown that the nativist restrictionists’ claim that immigration increases crime is just another White Nationalist myth. Not to be deterred, the nativists shifted to claiming that such studies didn’t break out “undocumented” immigrants as a separate group. Now, The Marshall Project’s data editor Anna Flagg writing in the N.Y. Times debunks that myth with what Trump and his White Nationalists fear most: facts!

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/13/upshot/illegal-immigration-crime-rates-research.html

Is There a Connection Between Undocumented Immigrants and Crime?

It’s a widely held perception, but a new analysis finds no evidence to support it.

By Anna Flagg

A lot of research has shown that there’s no causal connection between immigration and crime in the United States. But after one such study was reported on jointly by The Marshall Project and The Upshot last year, readers had one major complaint: Many argued it was unauthorized immigrants who increase crime, not immigrants over all.

An analysis derived from new data is now able to help address this question, suggesting that growth in illegal immigration does not lead to higher local crime rates.

In part because it’s hard to collect data on them, undocumented immigrants have been the subjects of few studies, including those related to crime. But the Pew Research Center recently released estimates of undocumented populations sorted by metro area, which The Marshall Project has compared with local crime rates published by the F.B.I. For the first time, there is an opportunity for a broader analysis of how unauthorized immigration might have affected crime rates since 2007.

A large majority of the areas recorded decreases in both violent and property crime between 2007 and 2016, consistent with a quarter-century decline in crime across the United States. The analysis found that crime went down at similar rates regardless of whether the undocumented population rose or fell. Areas with more unauthorized migration appeared to have larger drops in crime, although the difference was small and uncertain.

LITTLE SUPPORT AMONG AMERICANS FOR TRUMP’S WHITE NATIONALIST SCHEME OF SLASHING LEGAL IMMIGRATION!

https://apple.news/A0qG8LufUToKIgRLhjfQEIw

Mariana Alfaro reports in Business Insider:

Americans are more open to increased immigration than most Europeans, though far more people around the world would like to see a decrease in immigration overall, according to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center.

Pew surveyed 27 countries this spring on their views on immigration. Together, Pew reported, these 27 countries house more than half of the world’s international migrants. Of those surveyed, 45% said fewer or no immigrants should be allowed into their country while 36% said they want just about the same number of immigrants – including the U.S.

Among European countries, 82% of Greeks said they would like fewer immigrants to be allowed into the country, which has, since 2015, struggled with a surge of migrants and refugees escaping civil war in Syria. Nearly three-quarters of Hungarians, 71% of Italians, and 58% of Germans also believe fewer immigrants should be allowed to move to their countries, which have also been heavily affected by the refugee crisis.

In the U.S., only 29% of Americans want a decrease in immigration while 44% think about the same amount of immigrants should be allowed in. Nearly a quarter of Americans want immigration to increase. In Mexico, currently facing a surge in Central American migrants, 44% of those surveyed said they wanted immigration to decrease in the country, while 42% said they wanted it to stay the same.

Read more: Jeff Sessions said immigrants should ‘wait their turn’ to come to the US – here’s how complicated that process can be

Spain and Japan are among the most open to the idea of increased immigration, with 28% and 23% of their respective populations opting for more open borders. Japan, known for its isolationist policies and historically low immigration numbers, is currently facing a dire economic threat – its population is getting older.

The Pew report also found that outmigration is widely seen as a problem among the nations surveyed. Greeks (89%) and Spaniards (88%) are the most worried about the number of people leaving their countries, which Pew reported have seen an increase in people moving abroad in recent years. Eight out of 10 Mexicans also see outmigration as a problem. Mexico, according to the United Nations, has one of the largest numbers of people living outside their country, second only to India. But only 64% of those surveyed by Pew in India think outmigration is a problem.

Published on December 10, the report came out the same day global representatives gathered in Morocco to sign the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. The non-legally binding agreement, backed by Angela Merkel, was created to manage migration for both origin and destination countries but was rejected by several nations, including the U.S., Chile, and Australia.

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While there was little appetite (likely almost none outside of Trump’s base) for the restrictionist scheme to slash legal immigration, there also is a cautionary note for immigrants’ advocates who believe in increases in legal immigration levels; a significant plurality of Americans want to maintain legal immigration at current levels.

Consequently, even though more legal immigration channels appear to me to be 1) in our best economic interests; 2) a way of reducing “extralegal immigration;” 3) helpful in focusing the resources we spend on immigration enforcement;  and 4) our destiny as a “nation of immigrants” if we wish to maintain a position of leadership among nations, there is some persuasion to be done before that’s likely to become a political reality.

PWS

12-14-18

 

NEW FROM CATO INSTITUTE: Michelangelo Landgrave and Alex Nowrasteh Analyze Crime and Migrants — Conclusion: “Legal and illegal immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than natives.”

https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/immigration-brief-1_1.pdf

“Legal and illegal immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than natives. Our numbers do not represent the total number of immigrants who can be deported under current law or the complete number of convicted immi- grant criminals who are in the United States, but merely those incarcerated. This report provides numbers and demographic characteristics to better inform the public policy debate over immigration and crime.”

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The report is called Criminal Immigrants: Their Numbers, Demographics, and Countries of Origin, and it was issued on March 15, 2017. You can read the full report with charts, graphs, and citation of authorities at the link.

Many thanks to Nolan Rappaport for passing this along (although he doesn’t necessarily agree with the report’s conclusion).

PWS

03/15/17

 

NYT: President Trump Will Order Wall!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/us/politics/wall-border-trump.html?_r=0

This breaking story from the NYT was passed on by Dan Kowalski over at LexisNexis:

“President Trump will order the construction of a Mexican border wall on Wednesday, White House officials said, and is mulling plans to stop Syrian refugees from entering the country and to slash immigration of refugees from “terror prone” nations, perhaps as early as this week.”

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No real surprises here.  I had previously reported that the U.S. taxpayers will be on the hook for the cost of the border wall with only President’s Trump’s assurances that the Mexican Government will be reimbursing us.

And, as I have said many times before, I wake up every morning thankful that I woke up and that I’m not a refugee (particularly in today’s climate).

Interestingly, according to a recent Pew Research Center Poll, only a minority of Americans (39%) think that building a wall is a priority, while a majority (62%) favor legalization of those residing here without authorization and continuing to admit refugees on a humanitarian basis (61%). However, a majority of those surveyed (58%) do agree with President Trump that increasing deportations is important and that there should be stricter enforcement of those overstaying temporary visas (77%).

There does appear to be an opportunity for the Trump Administration to establish some type of national consensus on immigration. However, it does not appear to be exactly the same program that President Trump presented during his campaign. So, it would require some flexibility on all sides.

Read the complete Pew Research poll t this link:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/06/less-than-half-the-public-views-border-wall-as-an-important-goal-for-u-s-immigration-policy/

PWS

01/24/17