It is a common Republican tactic to argue their policy points without reference to the facts. All too often the mainstream media and liberals allow them to get away with it. Another example of this has come to my attention; as Governor Jan Brewer justifies Arizona’s draconian anti-immigrant law, she regularly raises the specter of an immigrant caused waive of crime sweeping Arizona. The media repeats this and indeed the Obama administration has said that it is a “real concern.” The facts however do not support this claim.
In an article published by the conservative Cato Institute, Stuart Anderson, has looked at the crime statistics and found that indeed the presence of immigrants (both legal and undocumented) LOWERS the crime rate rather than raises it. Here is the link to the article at the Cato Institutes website.
Here are key findings of what Anderson has found.
• In the past 10 years, as the number of immigrants in Arizona increased dramatically, Arizona’s crime rate fell by 20%.
• In California US born men have an imprisonment rate 10 times higher than forign born men.
• Nationally, the incarceration rate for US born men is 5 times higher than for foreign born men.
• Nationally, cities which have had the largest increase in immigrant population “experienced the largest decreases in homicide and robbery during the same time period.”
If we are going to win this, and other arguments with Conservatives, we must stop accepting their version of “facts.”