ILLEGAL Immigrants and Crime

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editorial Board wants people to quit highlighting the fact that some ILLEGAL immigrants commit crimes.

In its editorial, "The crime myth," the board argues that a study done by the New Jersey Star-Ledger reveals that "U.S. citizens are twice as likely to land in New Jersey’s prisons as legal and illegal immigrants." In addition, "the Public Policy Institute of California found much the same thing."

The Immigration Policy Center, the research arm of the American Immigration Law Foundation, calls our attention to this data. It notes that the claim of criminal immigrants committing mayhem has been handily debunked over a previous century of research.

The findings bear repeating now, however, as cities and states, in the absence of federal attention to immigration reform, ratchet up punitive efforts to ferret out illegal immigrants and, too often, jail or imprison them as a prelude to deportation.

Usually, this claim about immigrant criminals gets recycled whenever a high-profile crime and arrest occurs and the culprit turns out to be an illegal immigrant. What this data indicates is that this is an anomaly.

Anomaly?

In general, criminals are an anomaly. However, when discussing the criminal population, the Journal Sentinel appears to want to dismiss the fact that crimes are committed by ILLEGAL immigrants.

More U.S. citizens are convicted of crimes than ILLEGAL immigrants. So what?

That doesn't mean that the ILLEGAL status of immigrants/ criminals should be ignored.

It is simply counterintuitive to believe that the ranks of illegal immigrants doing jobs that Americans don’t want to do are rife with felons or felon wannabes. It makes no sense for people who live in dread of deportation to call attention to themselves in any fashion, least of all by action that brings them face-to-face with law enforcement.

What the research shows is that this not just counterintuitive. It’s false. Let’s move on.

What the Journal Sentinel Editorial Board completely disregards is the fact that ILLEGAL immigrants are breaking our laws.

The argument that it's counterintuitive for ILLEGAL immigrants to call attention to themselves by doing something that might bring them "face-to-face with law enforcement" is very strange, especially since far too many ILLEGAL immigrants are doing what's counterintuitive.

The Journal Sentinel's call, "Let's move on," is akin to putting blinders on.

In effect, the board is encouraging that our immigration laws be ignored. And it's not worth mentioning that a criminal is also in the country illegally.

Why not?

The board is suggesting that ILLEGAL immigrants overall are getting a bad name unfairly because those ILLEGAL immigrants who commit crimes are incarcerated less frequently than criminal U.S. citizens. I fail to see the logic in that.

The studies cited by the board measures the institutionalization of criminals. They look at jail and prison populations.

Do the figures take into account the ILLEGAL immigrants who don't serve sentences in our facilities but are deported instead? That would skew the findings.

In any event, the proportion of ILLEGAL immigrants committing crimes while they're in the U.S. compared to citizens is irrelevant. What matters is that ILLEGAL immigrants do commit crimes. Why shouldn't it matter that they are in the country ILLEGALLY?

When the media report on an individual's crimes, they usually mention ALL the person's violations of the law. In the case of ILLEGAL immigrants, just being in the U.S is a violation.

Why would we "move on"?

"Move on" to where? To a place where our laws are broken with impunity? Where one's immigration status means nothing?

If a criminal is also in violation of our immigration laws, I don't think it's right to ignore that fact.

The Journal Sentinel board says it's "[t]ime to move on from the canard that serious crimes by illegal immigrants broadly threaten public safety."

ILLEGAL immigrants don't "broadly" threaten public safety. The same goes for U.S. citizens. As a group, they don't "broadly" threaten public safety.

The notion that a threat must be "broad" to cause concern is ridiculous.

When an ILLEGAL immigrant commits a serious crime, it's particularly troubling because that individual should not have been in the country to begin with. That truth is unavoidable.

If the Journal Sentinel is truly interested in doing away with the view that ILLEGAL immigrants pose a serious public safety threat, one sure way to do that would be to enforce our immigration laws.