Reports Contradict Illegal Immigration Link to Violence

US President, Trump has categorically and repeatedly portrayed illegal immigrants as very dangerous and violent. He is taking advantage of the migrating caravans’ situation to drive his campaign for the midterm election in the US. He made it clear that illegal migration must be stopped at all cost because they pose a great threat to the country. Regarding the death of a 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts, Trump said someone who entered the US illegally from Mexico killed her hence the need for the wall and change in both immigration and border laws. In the latest ad released by the Trump camp, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who was twice deported for taking the lives of two American police officers was featured. He was heard saying he's going to take the lives of more cops. This was a move by the government to prove beyond doubt that undocumented immigrants are dangerous and threats to the country. Are undocumented immigrants really criminals as often portrayed by the present government? Despite so much noise and talks about undocumented immigrants being criminals and dangerous people, available data say otherwise.

A Brief Look into Data

A study published in the Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice in 2016 showed that, from 1980 to 2016, there was 118% increase in immigrants’ population (both undocumented and documented). In the same period, FBI data showed that the violent crime rate fell by 36%. Pew Research Center declared the number of unauthorized immigrants in the US to be 11.3 million (this represents below 4% of the total US population). The number of non-US citizens in both state and federal prisons is less than 6% of the total prison population according to report from Bureau of Justice Statistics. These are just very few from a pool of data showing that the link between crime and immigration is blown out of proportion. Stay in touch and get alerts & emails directly in your inbox by subscribing to VisaCrimes Check here for our latest immigration updates, local immigration activities, emerging trends, visa news updates for Australia, Canada, US, UK, Germany and more.