Crime and illegal aliens

New study: Flake’s DACA dream is Arizona’s crime nightmare

Arizona DACA-age immigrants are far more likely to commit violent crimes than non-immigrants.

We have enough of our own culture of violence in our major cities. Is it too much to ask that we don’t import the violent criminals of other countries? Or perhaps, for our political elite who don’t understands the concept of a government representing its own people, we can frame the question in the language they understand: We already have our own $#!%holes (Chicago, Baltimore, etc.). Do we need to import $#!%holes from the rest of the world?3

A new report published by expert criminologist John Lott lays waste to the long-standing lie peddled by open-borders advocates that crime rates are low among illegal aliens. Part of the reason it has been so hard to prove conclusively what everyone sees in their communities is that most crime is dealt with at a state and local level, and most states don’t have uniform data on the immigration status of criminals processed through their systems. Lott is the famed author of “More Guns, Less Crime,” who now runs the Crime Prevention Research Center. Milton Friedman once said of John Lottthat he “has few equals as a perceptive analyst of controversial public policy issues.”

Lott studied data from the state of Arizona from 1985 to 2017 to prove conclusively that illegal aliens commit crimes at a disproportionate rate relative to their share of the population.4 Here is what he found:

• Illegal immigrants in Arizona are at least 142 percent more likely to be convicted of crime than other Arizonans. And these are not just immigration and drug violations that we see on the federal level. They are more likely to be convicted of serious violent crimes: at least 163 percent more likely for first-degree murder; 168 percent more likely for second-degree murder; and 189.6 percent more likely for manslaughter. Also, Lott’s data confirms what some of us see anecdotally every day but is ignored by the national media – that illegals in Arizona are more likely to commit sexual offenses against minors, sexual assault, drunk driving, kidnapping, and armed robbery.
• We are often told that “dreamers” are a cut above the rest of the illegal population, and President Trump, who otherwise understands the truth on the broader issue, seems to have accepted this premise. Lott’s research found that although DACA-age illegals compose 0.81 percent of Arizona’s population, they represent 8 percent of the prison population. This means they compose 71.2 percent of the illegal immigrant population in prison and that they are 884 percent more likely to be convicted of crimes than non-immigrants of their age. If anything, “dreamers” are actually a bigger public s1afety risk than older illegal immigrants.
• While there is no uniform data nationwide, Lott projects that “[I]f undocumented immigrants committed crime nationally as they do in Arizona, in 2016 they would have been responsible for over 1,000 more murders, 5,200 rapes, 8,900 robberies, 25,300 aggravated assaults, and 26,900 burglaries.”
• Illegal immigrant criminals are 45.4 percent more likely to have been gang members, and “they are 133% more likely to receive sentencing enhancements for being classified as dangerous, and they tend to be released from prison at a younger age despite more serious crimes because they initially go to jail at a younger age.” Keep in mind that Obama’s DACA program tried to avoid scrutinizing juvenile records of recipients.

It’s important to remember that the data Lott studied came from the Arizona Department of Corrections, put together for the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys’ Advisory Council. The report analyzed “the entire universe of cases [615,555 convicted crimes], not a sample, and thus there are no issues of statistical significance.” There is reason to believe illegals might commit an even more disproportionate share of crimes that go unreported, especially within their communities, but convictions are a solid data point that reveals the floor, not the ceiling, of the criminal alien crisis. Remember, even among the general population, only a fraction of crimes are reported and wind up leading to a conviction. For conviction rates to be this high among illegals is staggering.

No wonder so many liberal state governments refuse to release data on immigration and crime. Until recently, the federal government hid the data on crime rates and immigration status in federal facilities. Thankfully, Trump’s DOJ released the data showing non-citizens (mainly illegal aliens) accounted for convictions 2.5 times their share of the population.

Folks, this is a national disgrace. Even if this were only limited to Arizona, it would be a gross violation of Article 4 Sec. 4, which tasks the federal government with the job of protecting states from invasion. But there is no reason to believe that the crime rates among illegal aliens are any different in most other states. This is a national emergency. Instead of a DACA “fix,” where is the clamor for a criminal alien fix for Americans?

While we have our own violent crime problem in America, the number of our violent criminals from other countries should be zero. That is because we should never bring in anyone who is violent, and those who manage to get in or commit crimes after being legally admitted should immediately be deported. Citizens, of course, cannot be deported. But immigration is a choice by we the people. So why are we electing to turn out country into a dumping ground?

Meanwhile, we have Arizona’s very junior senator, Jeff Flake, advertising his upcoming sanctimonious speech declaring that Trump is like Stalin. This man is a living and breathing disgrace, a violation of the social contract. As a senator from Arizona, he should be laying down on the proverbial tracks to stand up for his state and demand the deportation of every single criminal alien, the punishing of sanctuaries, and the immediate implementation of border and interior enforcement. Instead, he is exhibiting utter disregard for his own people and expending his entire tenure granting more legal rights and access to welfare for a particular population that, in general, is even more violent than the rest of illegal immigrants.

Proponents of DACA amnesty will claim that only the very best will get amnesty, but Flake is pushing for a broader Dream Act, which encompasses this entire population of illegals under 35, a population that Lott found to be full of violent criminals. Moreover, even among the 700,000 DACA population, only Goodlatte’s bill would open up juvenile records, which, according to this study, show the true extent of the criminal activity among many of the “Dreamers.”

It is even more disgraceful that people like Mitt Romney are using Martin Luther King’s legacy to promote the continued failed legacy of our immigration system when he was all about the rule of law and the equal treatment of all American citizens. Now, all Americans — black and white — are getting sent to the back of the bus for illegal aliens and are being thrown under the bus in their communities by politicians who harbor criminal aliens at the expense of public safety.

Illegal aliens in general, and “dreamers” in particular, have been a nightmare for Arizona. This shouldn’t even be a partisan issue. Everyone should agree to immediately deport all criminal aliens before there is any discussion of amnesty.1 Sadly, Jeff Flake and his compatriots are daydreaming about amnesty while his constituents bear the crushing cost of his nightmare.

---