CATO Institute on Illegal Murderers
Since republicans scream bloody murder whenever there's news of a murder committed by an "illegal immigrant," the right-center folks at the CATO Institute decided to compile and analyze the data on murders and other crimes committed in Texas, one of the states on the Biden Open Southern Border. And shucks, CATO found that "all immigrants in the United States are less likely to commit crime or to be incarcerated than native-born Americans."
CATO selected Texas for its study because it borders Mexico; it has the second‐largest illegal immigrant population of any state; it is a politically conservative state governed by Republicans; it did not have jurisdictions in most recent years that limited its cooperation with federal immigration enforcement; it has a reputation for strictly enforcing its criminal laws; and 58 percent of all Border Patrol and Office of Field Operations encounters of illegal immigrants along the Southwest border from October 2020 to January 2024 occurred in Texas.
Over the 10‐year period from 2013 to 2022, the homicide conviction rate in Texas for illegal immigrants was 2.2 per 100,000, compared to 3.0 per 100,000 for native‐born Americans. The homicide conviction rate for legal immigrants in Texas was 1.2 per 100,000. Illegal immigrants were 26 percent less likely than native‐born Americans to be convicted of homicide, and legal immigrants were 61 percent less likely.
Aside from murder, illegal immigrants were 48 percent less likely than native‐born Americans to be convicted of a crime, and legal immigrants were 58 percent less likely. The results are similar for arrest rates, where illegal immigrants had an arrest rate 44 percent lower than native‐born Americans, and legal immigrants had an arrest rate 53 percent lower, although it should be noted CATO has less confidence in the data for crimes other than homicide, which it considers rock solid (because the Texas state government most intensely investigates the immigration statuses of individuals convicted of the worst crimes).
Finally, 65 percent of homicide arrests of illegal immigrants led to a conviction but only 44% and 48% for legal immigrants and native-born Americans, respectively, were convicted for the same crime.
http://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/illegal-immigrant-murderers-texas-2013-2022
- - Prosecute, Prosecute, Prosecute 'em ALL!
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