Immigrants and Crime

Undocumented Entry and Deportation

Current estimates are that there are 10 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. population. Politicians, government administrators, and media accounts often refer to [Page 371]undocumented entrants as criminals; for both undocumented immigrants and legal immigrants with temporary or permanent resident status, the desire to avoid deportation is a strong motivation to avoid committing crime. Even legal immigrants lack the full rights of citizens and are subject to deportation if they commit a type of crime designated as an aggravated felony. Since the beginning of the War on Drugs, federal legislation successively and retroactively designated a series of offenses as grounds for “institutionalremoval.” Institutional removal involves deportation upon completion of a sentence. Even a misdemeanor charge of shoplifting has been made grounds for removal. Commission of an aggravated felony carries a collateral civil penalty of deportation for noncitizens. The right to due process is suspended for noncitizens. The two terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center are connected to designation of new aggravated felonies by federal law, increased incarceration, and then deportation of both legal and undocumented noncitizen residents.

Federal Imprisonment

Statistics released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (2005b) show that “criminal alien” imprisonment has moved steadily upward. In 1991,14,475 immigrants were ordered removed as compared to 42,000 in 2001. In 2004, 49,000 were deported.

According to John Scalia and Marika Litras, from 1985 to 2000, two thirds of the growth in the federal prison population were noncitizens. Government Accountability Office figures indicate that by 2003, immigration offenses were the cause of 68% of federal criminal alien convictions (2005a). In 2003, 24% of criminal aliens were charged with drug-related crimes, and less than 5% were convicted of violent crimes (2005a). In other words, immigration offenses are the predominant cause of federal incarceration.

Traditional Crime

Ruben Rumbaut and colleagues (2006a, 2006b) used 2000 U.S. Census data to establish that immigrants have a lower crime rate than people born in the United States. In the United States, the prototypical arrestee has a low level of education, is aged 18 to 39, and is of minority background. The youthfulness of the immigrant population predicts a higher crime rate, particularly among Mexicans. In fact, 3.51% of the U.S.-born population was incarcerated as compared to less than 1% (0.86%) of the foreign-born population (Rumbaut et al., 2006a, 2006b). Non-Hispanic Whites have higher crime rates than first-generation Latin American, Asian, or other immigrants. This statistic includes Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens. When Puerto Ricans are excluded from the analysis, only 0.68% of all immigrants have been convicted and incarcerated for a crime. It is important to consider that Salvadoreans/Guatemalans (0.52%) and Mexicans (0.70%) have the lowest level of education and the lowest rate of incarceration—atypical when compared to education level of other inmates. First-generation Mexicans and other Latin American immigrants are often stigmatized as a criminal element by the media.

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