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QUESTION: Crime rates and immigrants

Submitted by Anonymooose on Thu, 05/24/2007 - 7:32am
question / pregunta: 

In a recent speech on the house floor - rep. Steve King of Iowa made the claim that 12 Americans are murdered by "illegal immigrants" every day. This number has been picked up by many anti-immigrant groups but King offers no source for this. By my math that would mean "illegal immigrants" commit over a quarter of all murders (which I have a hard time beliveing) - Could you prove or disprove this number? I have arguments going on many fronts with folks who say "A member of the house of representatives said it - it must be true!" -
thanks . . .

Answers

Answer posted by: shqippy

I recommend taking a look at the work that Colorado Media Matters has done on this statement: colorado.mediamatters.org/items/200612160003

Answer posted by: MRM

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (part of the Department of Justice) report Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2005, "State and Federal correctional authorities held 91,117 noncitizens (6.4% of all prisoners), down from 91,815 at midyear 2004."

"Noncitizens" does not mean "illegal aliens," and anyway that 6.4% negates the 28% cited by talk show host "Gunny" Bob Newman right there.

Answer posted by: Anne

Essay by Rumbaut, Rubén G. & Ewing, Walter A. (2007) The Myth of Immigrant Criminality. Published on the Social Science Research Council website May 23, 2007.