The Center for Free Enterprise's latest Economic Insight is out. In this case, Karla Hernández discusses some crime and immigration-related myths.
The increase in migrant arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border has fueled anti-immigrant sentiment, notably among some U.S. politicians. They have harnessed escalating frustrations linked to crimes reportedly committed by undocumented migrants, such as the murder of a college student in Georgia and the recent border breach in El Paso, Texas. However, research contradicts this narrative, indicating that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than their U.S.-born counterparts. Moreover, studies find no evidence of a crime surge attributable to migrants in the United States.
Most of the data on crime and immigration in the U.S. comes from the Texas Department of Public Safety. The Texas DPS has one of the most robust documentations of the immigration statuses of people in the country, most likely due to the state having the second-largest population of undocumented immigrants. Researchers, upon analyzing crime data from the Texas Department of Public Safety, are finding a discrepancy between the actual statistics and the allegations of widespread criminal activity by undocumented migrants made by numerous U.S. politicians.
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