Immigration is the backbone of the United States. They bring so much to our country
such as labor, jobs, taxes and so on. Many American born citizens believe the notion that
immigrants bring more crime and don’t bring anything beneficial to the united states. But
contrary to popular belief there is no correlation between immigration and crime rates.
First and foremost, So many people believe that with immigration comes an influx in crime rates
in the unites States. This may be due to misinformation being spread from the news, ignorance on
social media, or articles that have negative views on immigration as well as the connection
between crime and immigration. this can lead to harmful stereotypes regarding immigrants,
specifically, immigrants of color. This affects the view of any immigrant coming to this country
expecting to achieve a better life, but given this reputation that the media or society has given
the immigrants, it makes it harder for them to integrate swiftly into American communities and
this notion is reflected into some immigration policies. According to the article entitled the “The
criminalization of immigration in the United States” from the American immigration council, in
this article the authors mention the fact that “the immigration policy is frequently shaped more
by fear and stereotype than by empirical evidence.” (Martinez et al). the significance of the
chosen excerpt lies in the idea that stereotypes are present in united states legislature. These
stereotypes affect how someone’s life can play out and it may all be because of superficial
aspects of a person that cannot be changed or a reputation made from a small group but
became popular news so people assume all people from that specific group of immigrants are
participants of a certain action or reaction.
Furthermore, given the fact that these harmful stereotypes, they bring along the false
idea that immigration brings crime to our nation, but this isn’t the case. In comparison to native
born American citizens, immigrant crime rates are significantly lower. They tend to be less
violent and obey traffic laws more often. Undocumented immigrants commit the least amount
of crime out of any group. According to The American immigration council, they discuss, “The
2010 census data reveals that incarceration rates among the young, less educated Mexican
Salvadoran, and, Guatemalan men who makes up the bulk of unauthorized population are
significantly lower than the incarceration rate among native born young men without a high
school diploma.” This holds significance because these people sacrifice and risk their lives to be
here in the states, the question of “why would they put what they worked for in jeopardy?“
Arises. As mentioned previously, the major stereotype surrounding many groups of immigrants
and crime is that they bring a significant amount of crime to the United States when it is quite
the opposite. This could be a result of racism or ignorance. According to Dr. Jose Miguel Cruz
who is a professor of political science at Florida international university in Miami Florida, on a
virtual interview with Professor Banerjee, he goes over, “Basically all the studies that have been
done exploring the link between migrants and crime, show that migrants tend to commit less
crime in the United States.” (Cruz 22:48). This is important because he confirms the point that
native born citizens are the ones committing most of the crime in the United States and these
studies demonstrate the notion that there is no link between these rates of crime and
immigrants. Also according to colleen Putzel, who specializes in the US-Mexico border for the
migration protection institution in Washington DC, on a zoom call with our ENC1101 class she
mentions, “immigrant involved in the US is usually significantly less than American citizens.”
(Putzel 50:10). In the zoom call she also goes into detail on the different statuses of immigration
and how in some cases only certain groups of immigrants get certain benefits or visas. Many
immigrants from many different parts of the globe, migrate from their countries to escape
drugs, gang violence or a corrupt government.
In conclusion, many come for a good life with good intentions for their loved ones. These
harmful stereotypes have a detrimental effect on the reputation of immigrants. There is not a
link between immigration and crime. People must educate themselves and advocate for
immigrants that are being discriminated against. Citizens must uplift immigrant voices in any
sort of way, any small thing can have a positive effect on someone’s outlook on immigration and crime.
THE END