Article and links to others challenging representations made about crime statistics involving illegal immigrants, and the idea that sanctuary cities are safer because illegal aliens will be disinclined to report crime outside for fear of deportation. Below graphic
Are Sanctuary Cities Safer? Patriot Post’s Mark Alexander’s column today
The informative article starts off with Alexander describing conversations with two acquaintances on matters related to crime and illegal immigrants. He raises them with reference to the issue of liberals defense of sanctuary cities. One of the conversations he relates to us involved a recent victim of crime and the other with a liberal lawyer. We excerpt the column here after his more lengthy set up.
On that latter assertion, my lib lawyer acquaintance insisted that sanctuary cities are safer than other cities, citing a study by the leftist Annenberg Public Policy Center.
Well, not exactly. I responded that the study primarily cited crime-rate comparison by immigrants and non-immigrant populations, not illegal aliens.
He responded with another study from the Cato Institute on immigration and crime. But this study also primarily cited crime-rate comparison by immigrants versus non-immigrant populations, not illegal aliens. In fact, the Cato study concluded with this caveat: “Note on Illegal Immigration — The public focus is on the crime rates of unauthorized or illegal immigrants. The research papers above mostly include all immigrants regardless of legal status.”
Now, I would agree with research findings that legal immigrants are less likely to commit criminal acts than some indigenous racial or ethnic groups — particularly poor blacks and Hispanics who’ve been enslaved by generations of leftist statist policies on what amount to urban poverty plantations.
I then advised the lawyer that I wasn’t basing my conclusion about crime and sanctuary cities on political rhetoric from the either end of the spectrum but on the facts — and the fact is that in almost all declared sanctuary cities, violence is growing rapidly. For example, in 2015, in one of the nation’s largest sanctuary cities, Los Angeles, violent crime was up 19.9%: homicides up 10.2%, shootings up 12.6%, rapes up 8.6%, robberies up 12.3% and aggravated assault up 27.5%.
Of course, we have covered the explosion of violent crime in the most celebrated of sanctuary cities, Chicago, under its inept Democrat mayor, Rahm Emanuel.
But these grim statistics alone don’t prove that the increase in violence is due to criminal aliens, primarily because the Obama administration intentionally scrubbed federal criminal records of data that would identify assailants as criminal aliens versus U.S. residents. But one GAO study from 2011 did sneak through, and it indicated that the percentage of criminal aliens in U.S. prisons is disproportionate to the estimated percentage of illegal aliens in America.
However, this does prove my case: I have spoken with federal and state law enforcement command line personnel across the nation — they are my first-hand sources on illegal aliens and crime — and they consistently make two declarations about violent crime:
1 The perpetrators of 95% of violence in major sanctuary cities are associated with gangs and/or drugs networks.
2 The most violent gang and drug networks have been infiltrated by criminal aliens.
It is no coincidence that in the nation’s largest “sanctuary city,” New York, it was announced this week that 10 of the 14 members of the MS-13 gang, who were indicted for the brutal murder of two teenage girls in neighboring Suffolk County, are criminal aliens.
Finally, I asked my acquaintance to view this video message from Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones to Barack Obama, after two deputies, Danny Oliver and Michael Davis, were murdered by an illegal immigrant on Obama’s watch. . . .
Notably, a colleague who recently retired after a career in both military and federal civilian law enforcement had this suggestion for political leaders refusing to enforce our nation’s immigration laws in their jurisdictions: “Any state or local government leaders inviting illegal aliens into their ‘sanctuary cities’ should lose the qualified immunity normally granted to government officials acting under color of law, thus leaving them open to civil suits from the victims (or survivors of victims) of the violent crimes committed in those jurisdictions by illegal aliens.”
Now, removing that legal liability limitation would be a Trump executive order that would give pandering sanctuary city politicians reason to reconsider.
While there are police chiefs who oppose deportation, the basis for most of those objections (those not politically motivated to appease a mayor) is concern about the increased threat to their officers resulting from interactions with offenders who are criminal aliens.
And a final note: There is some good news on the illegal migration from south of the border. Whether you approve of Donald Trump’s border enforcement policies or not, his commitment to enforce Rule of Law has already had a dramatic effect on illegal border crossings. According to Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly, in the first month of this year, “the flow of illegal border crossings as measured by apprehensions and the prevention of inadmissible persons at our southern border dropped by 40 percent.”
Other articles dealing with the subject reinforcing or making additional points:
5 Things You Need to Know About ‘Sanctuary Cities’
Sanctuary cities keep illegal immigrants safe at our expense
Immigration insanity: This federal judge just turned six states into sanctuary cities
The Nihilism of Sanctuary Cities
The Illegal-Alien Crime Wave: Why can’t our immigration authorities deport the hordes of illegal felons in our cities? (2004 article – sanctuary cities extend back to Bush years)
The curse of criminal illegal aliens
What the Media Won’t Tell You About Illegal Immigration and Criminal Activity
Sanctuary Cities Put Law-Abiding Citizens at Risk
Yes: Havens for Alien Criminals Should Lose Federal Funding
And from an opposing view:
‘You’re Not Supposed to Be Afraid’: Why Legal Status Shouldn’t Deter You from Reporting a Crime
It’s not against the law for officers to call in ICE, but it’s highly unlikely they will, said Yusufi-Marin. As long as a person doesn’t have a criminal record, they shouldn’t be worried about deportation after interacting with law enforcement. Lt. Don Redmond of the Chula Vista Police Department said victims or witnesses who want to stay anonymous can report crimes online or by phone.
It seems to us this admission, the fact that most cities have anonymous crime reporting phone numbers for everyone, belies the “if I report I will be deported” drama.
R Mall
