More Immigrants = Less Crime?

The president is lying to us about immigrants and crime, as usual.

Since the 1980s, the immigrant population in this country has more than doubled, but the crime rate has dropped by 60.4 percent. Keep that in mind as I share what happened.

Trump recently posted a video of an undocumented Haitian man charged with murder after striking a woman in the head. Following the fascist playbook, he quickly painted the entire Haitian population with a racist brush and blamed immigration broadly for criminal behavior.

Despite the cruelty and wanton violence we have witnessed in this country’s immigration enforcement, many still hold on to the same myths that undermine the safety of immigrant communities.

One common claim is that immigrants, especially undocumented, are largely lawless criminals who drive up the crime rate. That claim is a demonstrable lie.

The American Immigration Council analyzed data from 1980 to 2022 and found that as the immigrant population grew, the crime rate actually declined. The Migration Policy Institute compiled numerous studies showing that unauthorized immigrants are less likely to commit misdemeanor and felony crimes than U.S.-born citizens and other immigrant groups.

Data from the Texas Department of Public Safety shows that unauthorized immigrants have the lowest offending rates compared to U.S.-born citizens. And this is Texas we’re talking about—a state that has been at the center of the immigration debate for decades. If the “immigrants cause crime” narrative were true anywhere, it would show up there. But it doesn’t.

The truth is that as unauthorized immigration increases, crime decreases, or in some cases remains unaffected.

It makes perfect sense. Immigrants want to live in peace, and they face the threat of harsher enforcement than anyone else. It makes no sense to assume they are more likely to engage in criminal behavior.

So why is this myth perpetuated? Power needs you to ignore that data. Because if you accept that immigrants aren’t the problem, you might start asking who actually is.

Fear doesn’t need facts. One viral video of one crime committed by one immigrant can undo a mountain of data proving otherwise. Turning on fear effectively shuts down our rational mind—and the people in power know this well.

They want you to ignore their war crimes, their sex crimes, and how they are wrecking the economy for the rest of us. Corporate power and the ultra-wealthy want you to hate your immigrant neighbors. They want you to believe that vulnerable people without legal protection are causing our economic problems, so you don’t notice how they are looting the government, your healthcare, your education, and your livelihood. All of it, for their own benefit.