In recent days, the nation’s leading Spanish-language networks, Univision and Telemundo, have touted the findings of The Criminalization of Immigration in the United States, a new study by the pro-amnesty American Immigration Council (AIC), which details how crime rates are lower among immigrants in comparison with the native-born U.S. population.
In reporting the study’s findings, the networks failed to acknowledge that the prevalent concern among the American public is not the disparity between domestic and imported criminals, but that the United States is not doing nearly enough to deport the criminals that are among the nation’s current unauthorized immigrant population.
Following the murder in San Francisco of Kathryn Steinle by a five-time deportee allowed to escape the reach of federal immigration authorities thanks to San Francisco’s “sanctuary city” policy, and citing the AIC’s report, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos crowed on air that “it is not true that immigrants commit more crimes than the U.S.-born,” while Telemundo’s Cristina Londoño was also quick to dismiss concerns over immigration-related crime. Then Ramos went in to tweet the referenced data.
It's a myth to blame immigrants for higher crime. It's the opposite. Crime fell while immigrant population grew http://t.co/HeQM40uLJE
— JORGE RAMOS (@jorgeramosnews) July 7, 2015
However, research by other think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) point to how systemic government failure to enforce criminal and immigration laws has resulted in tens of thousands of immigrant criminals being free to roam the United States, instead of being deported. At a recent congressional hearing, it was revealed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released 36,000 convicted criminal aliens in fiscal year 2013 and 30,558 in fiscal year 2014.
Furthermore, according to the CIS, the fact that official data shows fewer immigrant criminals is not necessarily an accurate indicator of less crime, but rather can also be explained by the phenomenon of weaker law enforcement. Data cited by the CIS from ICE indicates that there are 167,527 convicted criminal immigrants whose removal has been ordered, but not executed.
The relevant portions of the referenced national newscasts appears below:
Noticiero Univisión 7/8/2015 6:30 PM
JORGE RAMOS, ANCHOR: This is the data. It is not true that immigrants commit more crime than the U.S.-born. In fact, it is the opposite: the proportion of violent crimes committed by immigrants is smaller than those committed by the U.S. native born, according to a study from the American Immigration Council. The analysis includes data from the FBI, indicating that between 1990 and 2013, there was a 48% reduction in serious crimes like murder, robbery, assault, and rape. The incarceration rate among immigrants is also much lower, 1.6%, than that of Americans, at 3.3%.
Noticiero Telemundo 7/8/2015 6:30 PM
CRISTINA LONDOÑO, CORRESPONDENT: And that concern of the immigrants is baseless, according to a study from the American Immigration Council. Based on nationally collected data, it says that men born here are up to two times more likely to commit a violent crime than a foreign born immigrant. Even so, Mari, there is concern.
