Close the border. Deport the interlopers. End of conflict.– Ed.
This study examines academic and government research on the questionof immigrant crime. New government data indicate that immigrants havehigh rates of criminality, while older academic research found lowrates. The overall picture of immigrants and crime remains confused dueto a lack of good data and contrary information. However, the newergovernment data indicate that there are legitimate public safetyreasons for local law enforcement to work with federal immigrationauthorities.
Among the findings:
- The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates that immigrants(legal and illegal) comprise 20 percent of inmates in prisons andjails. The foreign-born are 15.4 percent of the nation’s adultpopulation. However, DHS has not provided a detailed explanation of howthe estimates were generated.
- Under contract to DHS in 2004, Fentress, Inc., reviewed 8.1 millioninmate records from state prison systems and 45 large county jails.They found that 22 percent of inmates were foreign-born. But the reportdid not cover all of the nation’s jails.
- The 287(g) program and related efforts have found high rates ofillegal alien incarceration in some communities. But it is unclear ifthe communities are representative of the country:
- Maricopa County, Ariz.: 22 percent of felons are illegal aliens;
- Lake County, Ill.: 19 percent of jail inmates are illegal aliens;
- Collier County, Fla.: 20 to 22 percent of jail inmates and arrestees are illegal aliens;
- Weld County, Colo.: 12.8 to 15.2 percent of those jailed are illegal aliens.
- DHS states that it has identified 221,000 non-citizens in thenation’s jails. This equals 11 to 15 percent of the jail population.Non-citizens comprise only 8.6 percent of the nation’s total adultpopulation.