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If you analyze the actual incarceration rates and statistics, they show that immigrants from Mexico actually are LESS likely to commit crimes than the general US born population.
Take a look at an article by conservative Michael Medved, who btw opposes immigration from Mexico.
Mistakes, Lies and Prison Statistics
Posted by: Michael Medved at 2:16 AM
Everyone makes mistakes, and not every misstatement of fact amounts to a lie.
But if a gross distortion is repeated and defended, despite clear-cut evidence of its inaccuracy, then a mistake can become a lie – a deliberate, or at least shamefully careless, falsehood.
Senator Barack ***** recently provided a good example of a ****** mistake that in no way qualifies as a lie. Speaking to a campaign rally, the enthusiastic Senator expressed horror at the Kansas tornado which, he declared, “wiped out a whole town…. 10,000 people died.” Actually, he fell 9,988 casualties from the mark: only 12 people perished in the Greensburg tornado. Within minutes of his embarrassing speech, his campaign aides acknowledged the error and apologized to the media.
In a similar if less spectacular vein, I also misstated a victim count on my radio show on Tuesday. A caller tried to make the ridiculous point that my talk about the “Fort Dix Jihadis” amounted to a deliberate diversion from the national emergency involving criminal aliens. The caller said that the New Jersey conspirators hoped to kill “only” 100 soldiers, but that illegal aliens murder several times that number every single week. He went on to claim that illegals murdered some 8,000 to 9,000 Americans every year.
I insisted that his number counted as absurd, laughable, dishonest and ridiculous --- since, I said, only 10,600 Americans die of murder each year, and there is no chance that the heavy majority of them are killed by immigrants.
Actually, the figure that I pulled from memory covers gun deaths each year – which is why it stuck in my mind after heavy repetition following ******ia Tech. Recent statistics for all murders are, in fact, somewhat higher – amounting to a bit over 16,000 killed annually in recent years. That number is still way down from the 23,438 murders logged in 1990 (before the current wave of mass immigration, by the way) and a dramatic decline in the murder rate—which reached 10.2 per 100,000 population in 1980, and stands at 5.5 per 100,000 today (all statistics from the FBI: Uniform Crime Reports). As I accurately commented on the air, the overall murder rate has been cut nearly in half in the last quarter century, despite a proliferation of guns and immigrants. Within minutes of my misstatement of the actual raw number of murder victims, I corrected the number on the air—and acknowledged my mistake to the listeners.
But the claim of “8,000 to 9,000” killed by illegals remains ridiculous, unsubstantiated, irresponsible and, in fact, demented. The government doesn’t provide statistics on who committed every murder because many killings, of course, remain unsolved. We do have numbers, however, on those arrested for murder and those numbers (classified by race) show no basis whatever for suggesting that illegals predominate when it comes to killing their fellow US residents. The “Uniform Crime Report” doesn’t list a separate figure for “illegal aliens” or even for Hispanics, but it does divide murder arrests between blacks and whites --- with “blacks” representing 47.2% of all arrested murderers, “whites” amounting to 50.5% and “other” (mostly Native Americans) counted as 2.3%.
Since only a tiny percentage of American blacks (most of whom descend from ****** forced to this country before the War Between the States) qualify as illegal aliens (or legal immigrants, for that matter), these numbers would mean that at least two-thirds of the self-described “white” murderers would have to be “illegals” to come up with anything close to the ludicrous figure of 8,000 murder victims of undocumented immigrants per year.
To further settle the issue, consider the states with the highest murder rates per 100,000: they are Louisiana (12.7), Maryland (9.4), and by far the winner, the District of Columbia (with a staggering 35.8). None of these bloody jurisdictions is known for concentrations of illegals. Meanwhile, those states most famous for burgeoning populations of the undocumented show murder rates that only moderately exceed the national average of 5.5 – including Texas at 6.1 and California at 6.7. In other words, illegals may create a host of other serious problems (particularly for our over-taxed medical and educational institutions) but they can’t be blamed for the majority or even for half of the national murder rate.
This conclusion then raises the touchy issue of a “statistic” that may have arisen from an honest misunderstanding, but now amounts to a ludicrous distortion, an irresponsible bit of demagoguery or, most likely, an outright lie.
A few politicians and many, many conservative talk show hosts (who honestly ought to know better) have taken up the cry that “nearly one third of all inmates crowding our prisons are illegal aliens.” Sometimes, those citing this number will make a slightly more modest claim: that 29% of all prisoners are illegals, or 27%, or some other hugely disproportionate number.
This claim is so dishonest, so wide of the mark, so utterly unsubstantiated that the people who continue to recycle it ought to apologize, and acknowledge their mistake – or else they’re participating in a deliberate lie.
Here are the facts, easily available from the FBI, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, the General Accounting Office, the Congressional Budget Office, or any other reputable source:
Among inmates in federal prisons, it’s true that a highly disproportionate number of prisoners have been classified as “non-citizens” or “criminal aliens.” Many of these immigrants turn up in federal prison because of problems with their immigration status (surprise!) or because they’re involved with the interstate or international drug trade.
But federal prisoners represent only a small percentage – just 8%--of our total prison population. The bulk of inmates have been incarcerated in state prisons (including nearly all convicts accused of murder)and there, non-citizens are, if anything, under-represented: amounting to less than 5% of the prisoner population.
Taking the total state-federal prison population (2,193,798) and the total number of non-citizens in both systems (122,708), the actual percentage of “criminal aliens” in our prisons amounts to 5.5% --- not even remotely close to the 29% or “one third” claimed by clownish demagogues.
Repeatedly misrepresenting the percentage of “illegals” in our prisons by a factor of more than 5 to 1 amounts to more than a trivial mistake, and becomes an outrageous, irresponsible, indefensible lie.
As a matter of fact, the distortion is even worse than an overstatement of some 500% because the 5.5% in the prison system represents not “illegal aliens” but all “non-citizens” –including legal immigrants, and those here on temporary visas, and so forth. Every academic study (including conclusive work done at Harvard, University of Chicago, University of California, San Diego, and elsewhere) suggests that illegal immigrants are less likely, not more likely, than legal immigrants to involve themselves in criminal activity—in part because of their fear of deportation.
According to most estimates, legal immigrants who haven’t yet qualified for citizenship probably outnumber illegal immigrants in the overall population. There’s every reason to believe, therefore, that such legal immigrants also outnumber the illegals among the “non-citizens” or “criminal aliens” counted in the prison population.
In any event, with a total of 5.5% of the prison population, including both legal and illegal immigrants, it’s virtually certain that illegals are actually under-represented among prisoners. The lowest current estimate for “undocumented immigrants” is 12 million--- or 4% of the national population. There’s little chance that these illegals represent more than – or even as much as --- 4% of our total prison population.
Does this mean that illegal immigration is okay, or that it isn’t a problem, or that we ought to give up efforts to stem the flow of unauthorized entrants across our southern border?
Of course not. As I’ve acknowledged time and again, illegal immigration represents a significant problem and a very real threat to US security and prosperity. We need to deal with that crisis honestly and effectively.
But continuing to repeat and to recycle phony numbers about the number of illegals in our jails doesn’t help us move toward a solution. It only serves to marginalize the legitimate concerns of patriotic people who yearn to take effective control of our borders.
The numbers are available, for anyone who cares about the truth.
Those who love our country, who value honesty and integrity, who hope for a meaningful improvement in border security, should correct and acknowledge their mistakes, and avoid indulging in de****able l
Take a look at an article by conservative Michael Medved, who btw opposes immigration from Mexico.
Mistakes, Lies and Prison Statistics
Posted by: Michael Medved at 2:16 AM
Everyone makes mistakes, and not every misstatement of fact amounts to a lie.
But if a gross distortion is repeated and defended, despite clear-cut evidence of its inaccuracy, then a mistake can become a lie – a deliberate, or at least shamefully careless, falsehood.
Senator Barack ***** recently provided a good example of a ****** mistake that in no way qualifies as a lie. Speaking to a campaign rally, the enthusiastic Senator expressed horror at the Kansas tornado which, he declared, “wiped out a whole town…. 10,000 people died.” Actually, he fell 9,988 casualties from the mark: only 12 people perished in the Greensburg tornado. Within minutes of his embarrassing speech, his campaign aides acknowledged the error and apologized to the media.
In a similar if less spectacular vein, I also misstated a victim count on my radio show on Tuesday. A caller tried to make the ridiculous point that my talk about the “Fort Dix Jihadis” amounted to a deliberate diversion from the national emergency involving criminal aliens. The caller said that the New Jersey conspirators hoped to kill “only” 100 soldiers, but that illegal aliens murder several times that number every single week. He went on to claim that illegals murdered some 8,000 to 9,000 Americans every year.
I insisted that his number counted as absurd, laughable, dishonest and ridiculous --- since, I said, only 10,600 Americans die of murder each year, and there is no chance that the heavy majority of them are killed by immigrants.
Actually, the figure that I pulled from memory covers gun deaths each year – which is why it stuck in my mind after heavy repetition following ******ia Tech. Recent statistics for all murders are, in fact, somewhat higher – amounting to a bit over 16,000 killed annually in recent years. That number is still way down from the 23,438 murders logged in 1990 (before the current wave of mass immigration, by the way) and a dramatic decline in the murder rate—which reached 10.2 per 100,000 population in 1980, and stands at 5.5 per 100,000 today (all statistics from the FBI: Uniform Crime Reports). As I accurately commented on the air, the overall murder rate has been cut nearly in half in the last quarter century, despite a proliferation of guns and immigrants. Within minutes of my misstatement of the actual raw number of murder victims, I corrected the number on the air—and acknowledged my mistake to the listeners.
But the claim of “8,000 to 9,000” killed by illegals remains ridiculous, unsubstantiated, irresponsible and, in fact, demented. The government doesn’t provide statistics on who committed every murder because many killings, of course, remain unsolved. We do have numbers, however, on those arrested for murder and those numbers (classified by race) show no basis whatever for suggesting that illegals predominate when it comes to killing their fellow US residents. The “Uniform Crime Report” doesn’t list a separate figure for “illegal aliens” or even for Hispanics, but it does divide murder arrests between blacks and whites --- with “blacks” representing 47.2% of all arrested murderers, “whites” amounting to 50.5% and “other” (mostly Native Americans) counted as 2.3%.
Since only a tiny percentage of American blacks (most of whom descend from ****** forced to this country before the War Between the States) qualify as illegal aliens (or legal immigrants, for that matter), these numbers would mean that at least two-thirds of the self-described “white” murderers would have to be “illegals” to come up with anything close to the ludicrous figure of 8,000 murder victims of undocumented immigrants per year.
To further settle the issue, consider the states with the highest murder rates per 100,000: they are Louisiana (12.7), Maryland (9.4), and by far the winner, the District of Columbia (with a staggering 35.8). None of these bloody jurisdictions is known for concentrations of illegals. Meanwhile, those states most famous for burgeoning populations of the undocumented show murder rates that only moderately exceed the national average of 5.5 – including Texas at 6.1 and California at 6.7. In other words, illegals may create a host of other serious problems (particularly for our over-taxed medical and educational institutions) but they can’t be blamed for the majority or even for half of the national murder rate.
This conclusion then raises the touchy issue of a “statistic” that may have arisen from an honest misunderstanding, but now amounts to a ludicrous distortion, an irresponsible bit of demagoguery or, most likely, an outright lie.
A few politicians and many, many conservative talk show hosts (who honestly ought to know better) have taken up the cry that “nearly one third of all inmates crowding our prisons are illegal aliens.” Sometimes, those citing this number will make a slightly more modest claim: that 29% of all prisoners are illegals, or 27%, or some other hugely disproportionate number.
This claim is so dishonest, so wide of the mark, so utterly unsubstantiated that the people who continue to recycle it ought to apologize, and acknowledge their mistake – or else they’re participating in a deliberate lie.
Here are the facts, easily available from the FBI, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, the General Accounting Office, the Congressional Budget Office, or any other reputable source:
Among inmates in federal prisons, it’s true that a highly disproportionate number of prisoners have been classified as “non-citizens” or “criminal aliens.” Many of these immigrants turn up in federal prison because of problems with their immigration status (surprise!) or because they’re involved with the interstate or international drug trade.
But federal prisoners represent only a small percentage – just 8%--of our total prison population. The bulk of inmates have been incarcerated in state prisons (including nearly all convicts accused of murder)and there, non-citizens are, if anything, under-represented: amounting to less than 5% of the prisoner population.
Taking the total state-federal prison population (2,193,798) and the total number of non-citizens in both systems (122,708), the actual percentage of “criminal aliens” in our prisons amounts to 5.5% --- not even remotely close to the 29% or “one third” claimed by clownish demagogues.
Repeatedly misrepresenting the percentage of “illegals” in our prisons by a factor of more than 5 to 1 amounts to more than a trivial mistake, and becomes an outrageous, irresponsible, indefensible lie.
As a matter of fact, the distortion is even worse than an overstatement of some 500% because the 5.5% in the prison system represents not “illegal aliens” but all “non-citizens” –including legal immigrants, and those here on temporary visas, and so forth. Every academic study (including conclusive work done at Harvard, University of Chicago, University of California, San Diego, and elsewhere) suggests that illegal immigrants are less likely, not more likely, than legal immigrants to involve themselves in criminal activity—in part because of their fear of deportation.
According to most estimates, legal immigrants who haven’t yet qualified for citizenship probably outnumber illegal immigrants in the overall population. There’s every reason to believe, therefore, that such legal immigrants also outnumber the illegals among the “non-citizens” or “criminal aliens” counted in the prison population.
In any event, with a total of 5.5% of the prison population, including both legal and illegal immigrants, it’s virtually certain that illegals are actually under-represented among prisoners. The lowest current estimate for “undocumented immigrants” is 12 million--- or 4% of the national population. There’s little chance that these illegals represent more than – or even as much as --- 4% of our total prison population.
Does this mean that illegal immigration is okay, or that it isn’t a problem, or that we ought to give up efforts to stem the flow of unauthorized entrants across our southern border?
Of course not. As I’ve acknowledged time and again, illegal immigration represents a significant problem and a very real threat to US security and prosperity. We need to deal with that crisis honestly and effectively.
But continuing to repeat and to recycle phony numbers about the number of illegals in our jails doesn’t help us move toward a solution. It only serves to marginalize the legitimate concerns of patriotic people who yearn to take effective control of our borders.
The numbers are available, for anyone who cares about the truth.
Those who love our country, who value honesty and integrity, who hope for a meaningful improvement in border security, should correct and acknowledge their mistakes, and avoid indulging in de****able l
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