Crimes committed by illegal immigrants in theUnited States is a legal and political issue in the United States. In the United States,illegal immigration is a federal offense under8 U.S.C. § 1325.[1] The maximum punishment, six months' prison term for the first offense,[1] is equivalent to amisdemeanor inUnited States law, which is lower than afelony. The issue of crimes committed byillegal immigrants to the United States is a topic that is often asserted by moreconservative politicians and media outlets when discussingimmigration policy in the United States.
There is scholarly consensus that illegal immigrants commit less crime than natives.[2][3]Sanctuary cities—which limit or deny cooperation with the national government in enforcing immigration law—have no statistically meaningful impact on crime, and may reduce the crime rate.[4][5] Research suggests that immigration enforcement has no impact on crime rates.[6][7][4] Some commentators argue that some of the claims linking immigration to crime are made inbad faith.[8][9][10][11]
Entering the US without documented permission from the US government is an "offense" or a misdemeanor.[1] According to some empirical evidence that disregarded illegal immigration itself as a crime, immigrants (including illegal immigrants) were otherwise less likely to commit crimes than native-borncitizens in the United States.[12][13][14][15][16]
A 2020 paper by theCato Institute found that the illegal immigrant conviction rate in Texas was 45 percent lower than the conviction rate of native-born Texans. Texas is the only state that gathers an arrestee's biometric data through the Department of Homeland Security's system tracking illegal immigrants and that maintains the records of an arrestee's immigration status.[17]
A 2018 study found that undocumented immigration to the United States did not increaseviolent crime rates.[18] A 2017 study found that "Increased undocumented immigration was significantly associated with reductions in drug arrests, drug overdose deaths, and DUI arrests, net of other factors."[19] A 2017 study found that California's extension of driving licenses to unauthorized immigrants "did not increase the total number of accidents or the occurrence of fatal accidents, but it did reduce the likelihood of hit and run accidents, thereby improving traffic safety and reducing costs for California drivers ... providing unauthorized immigrants with access to driver's licenses can create positive externalities for the communities in which they live."[20]
A 2018 study in theAmerican Economic Journal: Economic Policy found that by restricting the employment opportunities for unauthorized immigrants, theImmigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) likely caused an increase in crime rates.[21][22] A 2018PLOS One study estimated that the undocumented immigrant population in the United States was 22 million, approximately twice as large as the estimate derived from theUnited States Census Bureau's figures. An author of the study notes that this has implications for the relationship between undocumented immigration and crime, suggesting that the crime rate among undocumented immigrants is significantly lower than previously estimated: "You have the same number of crimes but now spread over twice as many people as was believed before, which right away means that the crime rate among undocumented immigrants is essentially half whatever was previously believed."[23]
According to analysis of the2010 United States census, "immigrants to the United States are significantly less likely than native-born citizens to be incarcerated. The authors found that 1.6 percent of immigrant males age 18–39 are incarcerated, compared to 3.3 percent of the native-born... The divide was even sharper when the authors examined the incarceration rate among immigrant men the authors believe likely to be undocumented — specifically less-educated men fromEl Salvador andGuatemala between age 18–29. ... According to the analysis, these likely undocumented immigrants had an incarceration rate of 1.7 percent, compared with 10.7 percent for native-born men without a high school diploma".[24]
A 2016 study of an effort to reduce crime inNorth Carolina by identifying and deporting illegal immigrants showed no correlation between increased deportation enforcement and local crime rates.[25]
A 2018 study found no evidence that apprehensions of undocumented immigrants in districts in the United States reduced crime rates.[26]
A 2020 study found that native-born US citizens are incarcerated at higher rates for homicide in Texas than undocumented immigrants.[27]
According to immigration analystAlex Nowrasteh, and criminologistBarry Latzer,Texas is the only state that tracks illegal immigrants by the specific crime committed.[28][29][30] Homicide data are regarded as more accurate than data on other crimes because "a much higher proportion of murders are solved."[30] The Texas data for 2016 showed that the rate of murder convictions in 2016 was 3.2 per 100,000 native-born Americans, 0.9 for every 100,000 legal immigrants and 1.8 per 100,000 illegal immigrants.[28][29]
Research suggests that people overestimate the relationship between immigration and criminality.[31]
A January 2024 survey in the U.S. found that 57% of Americans believe migrants lead to more crime, which some experts attribute to anecdotal media stories that lack context.[32][33]Graham Ousey believes the perception stems from flashpoint events that politicians use to push up the myth that immigrants create more crime.[34][35] Donald Trump has been the most prominent promoter of the false link between immigration and crime, according to theAssociated Press.[36] Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera argues it is a cornerstone of the MAGA platform.[37][38]
Americans dramatically overestimate the relationship between refugees and terrorism.[39] A 2020 study of media coverage from 1900-2013 found an increasing framing of stories in prominent news media helps to explain the misperception among many Americans that immigration increases crime, such as treating immigration itself as a crime and covering fewer crimes committed against immigrants.[40] A 2018 study found that media coverage of immigrants in the United States has a general tendency to emphasize illegality and/or criminal behavior in a way that is inconsistent with actual immigrant demographics.[41] These findings are consistent with a 2019 study showing that the news covering crime implies that there is a racial or immigration factor based on the stories selected and descriptors of the suspects, creating an inaccurate view of the impacts of immigration on crime, which are not significant.[42] A study of coverage of refugees in theGuardian and theTimes in the UK from 2015-2018 found that media portrayals made muslim refugees seem like threats to the economy or security and exaggerated differences between these refugees and the native population.[43]
Research suggests a vicious cycle of bigotry and immigrant alienation could exacerbate immigrant criminality and bigotry. For instance, UC San Diego political scientistClaire Adida, Stanford University political scientistDavid Laitin, and Sorbonne University economist Marie-Anne Valfort argue:
[F]ear-based policies that target groups of people according to their religion or region of origin are counter-productive. Our own research, which explains the failed integration of Muslim immigrants in France, suggests that such policies can feed into a vicious cycle that damages national security. French Islamophobia—a response to cultural difference—has encouraged Muslim immigrants to withdraw from French society, which then feeds back into French Islamophobia, thus further exacerbating Muslims' alienation, and so on. Indeed, the failure of French security in 2015 was likely due to police tactics that intimidated rather than welcomed the children of immigrants—an approach that makes it hard to obtain crucial information from community members about potential threats.[44]
A study of the long-run effects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks found that the post-9/11 increase inhate crimes against Muslims decreased assimilation by Muslim immigrants.[45] Controlling for relevant factors, the authors found that "Muslim immigrants living in states with the sharpest increase in hate crimes also exhibit: greater chances of marrying within their own ethnic group; higher fertility; lower female labour force participation; and lower English proficiency."[45] Hate crimes andfamily separation have also been consequences of rhetoric linking crime tomigration from Mexico.[32] Individuals who believe that African Americans and Hispanics are more prone to violence are more likely to support capital punishment.[46]
TheDillingham Commission singled out immigrants from Southern Europe for their involvement in violent crime (even though the data did not support its conclusions).[47][36] The commission's overall findings provided the rationale for sweeping 1920simmigration-reduction acts, including theEmergency Quota Act of 1921, which favored immigration fromnorthern andwestern Europe by restricting the annual number of immigrants from any given country to 3 percent of the total number of people from that country living in the United States in 1910. The movement for immigration restriction that the Dillingham Commission helped to stimulate culminated in theNational Origins Formula, part of theImmigration Act of 1924, which capped national immigration at 150,000 annually and completely barred immigration fromAsia.[48]
Individuals who are in the United States illegally and who have been convicted of crimes are eligible to be deported under federal law.[49] Research suggests that immigration enforcement has no impact on crime rates.[50][51][52]
Crimes committed by illegal immigrants who had previously been arrested or convicted of crimes have been a focus of particular attention.[53][54]Sanctuary cities—which adopt policies designed to avoid prosecuting people solely for being in the country illegally—have no statistically meaningful impact on crime, and may reduce the crime rate.[52][55]
Discussion has been particularly intense when an illegal alien has been arrested for a minor offense and is known to be in the country illegally is released because the jurisdiction where he was arrested is asanctuary city that limits police cooperation withU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE,) and goes on to commit a new crime.[53][56] Examples include the 2018Tulare County shootings, where the suspect had previously served time in American prisons and been deported twice before being arrested on a misdemeanor and released underCalifornia Sanctuary Law SB54 the day before he killed two and wounded seven in aspree shooting.[57]
Special Order 40 is a directive issued jointly by theLos Angeles City Council and theLos Angeles Police Department (LAPD) under ChiefDaryl Gates and theLos Angeles City Council in 1979 prohibiting officers of the LAPD officers from questioning individuals for the sole purpose of whether they were in the United States legally.[58] The Special Order was the center of controversy following the 2008Murder of Jamiel Shaw II by a perpetrator who was a member of the18th Street gang and anillegal immigrant to the United States.[59][60][61][62] An effort to put a repeal measure on the ballot in 2009 failed.[63] Police CommissionerWilliam Bratton successfully opposed rescinding the Special Order.[58]
TheSupport Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (Arizona SB 1070) was enacted by the Arizona legislature in 2010 as a response to broad public dislike of illegal immigration among Arizona voters, and by a widespread belief that a great deal of crime was being committed by illegal immigrants that persisted despite a scholarly consensus that illegal immigrants commit proportionately fewer crimes than American citizens and that crime was declining at the border.[64] Public support for the bill was driven by the March 2010 murder of ArizonarancherRobert Krentz.[64]
Texas Senate Bill 4 was enacted in 2017 to block municipalities in Texas from becomingsanctuary cities, that is, to prevent local authorities from refusing to cooperate with federal authorities in enforcing immigration laws by directing police and court officials not to question persons accused of crimes about their immigration status and to ignore requests by federal authorities to hold individuals who are in the country illegally and have been arrested for minor crimes for deportation.[65] Texas Senate Bill 4 also allows police officers to check the immigration status of those they detain if they choose.[65][66][needs update]
During his presidential campaignDonald Trump asserted that the immigrants are responsible for higher levels of violent and drug-related crime in the United States. A 2016 study was undertaken to test this hypothesis, specifically with regard to immigrants fromMexico. According to the study, "Results largely contradict the Trump Hypothesis: no evidence links Mexican or undocumented Mexican immigrants specifically to violent ordrug-related crime."[67]
In July 2015, Donald Trump invited what he terms Angel Families, families who have had a member killed by an illegal immigrant to meet with him. Some had lost relatives in road accidents, others were shot or stabbed, but all had family members who died due to actions taken by what Trump describes as people who never should have been in the U.S. in the first place. TheRemembrance Project, a nonprofit that works to draw attention to the victims of crimes committed by illegal immigrants, helped the campaign locate families of victims.[68]
During the2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, apolitical advertisement showing mugshots of illegal immigrants who committed violent crimes in the U.S. alternate with footage of candidateJeb Bush saying, "Yeah, they broke the law, but it's not a felony.... It's anact of love,"[69][70] is regarded as having played a role in Bush's withdrawal from the race.[71] At a May 2016 campaign rally, Trump told an audience that illegal immigrants "Raped, sodomized and killed" Americans.[72] Jamiel Shaw, Sr., the father of ahigh school student murdered by an illegal immigrant in 2008, became a spokesman for the Trump campaign.[73]
During his presidency, Donald Trump had repeatedly asserted that crimes committed by illegal immigrants to the United States make the construction of awall along the U.S.-Mexico border an urgent necessity. Trump's assertions about crimes committed by illegal immigrants were regularly shown to be inaccurate.[74][75]
The latest rise in crime occurred in 2020 during the Trump presidency, when immigration was historically low due to COVID restrictions.[76]
"One Nation," a political nonprofit supporting Republican candidates, produced an ad showing a masked, knife-wielding man with a voice saying, "We need tough immigration enforcement to keep dangerous criminals out."[72] Other ads criticizedsanctuary cities, something Matt Gorman, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said that many Americans oppose.[72]
Some politicians and commentators have criticized the most vocal commentators linking immigration and crime as doing so in bad faith for political gain.[77][8][78][79]
A January 2024 survey in the U.S. found that 57% of Americans believe migrants lead to more crime, which some experts attribute to anecdotal media stories that lack context.[80][81]Graham Ousey believes the perception stems from flashpoint events that politicians use to push up the myth that immigrants create more crime.[82][83] Donald Trump has been the most prominent promoter of the false link between immigration and crime, according to theAssociated Press.[84] Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera argues it is a cornerstone of the MAGA platform.[85][86]
A range of studies by academics and think tanks have shown that immigrants do not commit crime at a higher rate than native-born Americans. A more limited universe of studies specifically examine criminality among immigrants in the U.S. illegally but also find that they do not commit crimes at a higher rate.
On the campaign trail, Trump said he would seek to quickly deport between 2 million and 3 million immigrants with criminal records. But a study by the Migration Policy Institute found that 820,000 unauthorized immigrants had committed other crimes, including about 300,000 with felony records
... every expert we polled said there is a consensus among scholars that undocumented immigrants are not more likely to commit crimes than U.S. citizens.
Although most research shows immigration has either no impact or a minimal impact on crime, many people seem to believe the connection exists. It seems hostility against immigrants isn't crime itself but false perceptions about crime.
O'Neil said immigration advocates have not been able to match the Trump administration's rhetoric when framing the immigration debate. She said Trump has been hammering the notion that immigrants are criminals, while Democrats and other immigration supporters have been unable to keep up. As a result, she said the public may associate immigrants with crime, leading to a stereotype that sticks.
Donald Trump has reached the greatest political heights while linking immigration to violent crime, but he's hardly the first American politician to promote the unfounded narrative.
One of the cornerstones of the MAGA movement, Correa-Cabrera said, is a perception that immigrants bring violence, drugs and insecurity into the United States. Part of the reason, she said, is because many immigrants come to the U.S. to escape violence in their home countries. Still, research has repeatedly debunked the idea that immigrants are more prone to commit violent crime than U.S. citizens.
Border security, as well as immigration and a perception – not supported by statistics – that it is tied to violent crime, are common features of Mr Trump's rallies and campaign speeches.
Garcia-Ruiz has a known criminal past. The sheriff's office said he received a one-year jail sentence and 36 months probation in 2003, after facing criminal charges in 2002, including armed robbery in Fresno, and assault with a deadly weapon in Reedley.
O'Neil said immigration advocates have not been able to match the Trump administration's rhetoric when framing the immigration debate. She said Trump has been hammering the notion that immigrants are criminals, while Democrats and other immigration supporters have been unable to keep up. As a result, she said the public may associate immigrants with crime, leading to a stereotype that sticks.
Donald Trump has reached the greatest political heights while linking immigration to violent crime, but he's hardly the first American politician to promote the unfounded narrative.
One of the cornerstones of the MAGA movement, Correa-Cabrera said, is a perception that immigrants bring violence, drugs and insecurity into the United States. Part of the reason, she said, is because many immigrants come to the U.S. to escape violence in their home countries. Still, research has repeatedly debunked the idea that immigrants are more prone to commit violent crime than U.S. citizens.
Border security, as well as immigration and a perception – not supported by statistics – that it is tied to violent crime, are common features of Mr Trump's rallies and campaign speeches.