When opposing politicians discuss immigration and crime, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Michael T. Light said they often “talk past one another.”
In a recent interview with WPR’s “Wisconsin Today,” Light said empirical research can check claims rampant in political discourse.
“Yes, immigrants have committed crimes. And immigrants commit less crimes than native born U.S. citizens,” he said. “Both (of) those can be true.”
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In the interview, Light addressed some of the most common misconceptions about immigration and crime that come up in politics and what he said the research shows.
Comparing crime rates between immigrant and non-immigrant groups
Using data from the U.S. census, a 2020 study co-authored by Light shows “crime rates, offending rates and incarceration rates tend to be lower amongst foreign-born individuals,” Light said.
Published in the academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Light’s study compared Texas Department of Public Safety arrest data between 2012 and 2018 from immigrants without permanent legal status to other immigrants and native-born U.S. citizens.
Light’s study reflects what criminologists have seen regarding immigration and crime for more than a century, he said, adding that records dating as far back as 1910 consistently show that immigrants do not commit a disproportionately high amount of crime.
What about violent crimes or any felonies?
A 2018 study co-authored by Light and published in the academic journal Criminology found that as the population of immigrants who lack permanent legal status increased, violent crime tended to decrease.
Light’s study used criminal, socioeconomic and demographic data from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. from 1990 to 2014, “to provide the first longitudinal analysis of the macro-level relationship between undocumented immigration and violence,” the research states.
Data also suggests immigrants lacking permanent legal status are less likely than a U.S. citizen to be arrested for any felony, Light said. This finding comes from the aforementioned 2020 study that looked into Texas data.
Examining the effects of an immigration law on crime
Two separately conducted studies, one published by The Journal of Law and Economics in 2014 and the other in Criminology & Public Policy in 2023, examined an Obama-era initiative called the Secure Communities program. The program shared criminal history information between local law enforcement and the federal government between 2008 and 2014.
The Secure Communities program led to a “substantial increase in deportations from people having contact with the criminal justice system,” Light said.
“Both sets of studies very clearly showed Secure Communities just had no effect on the overall crime rate,” Light said. “The largest group of people who were identified to that program were traffic offenders.”
Digging into homicide and drug overdose data
Light said border crossings in 2020 “dropped to a trickle.” What happened to homicides during the same time?
“During that same year, we saw the largest increase in homicide on record,” he said. “Homicides increased by about 30 percent that year, which had nothing to do with immigration.”
Light also said some of his 2017 research published in the American Journal of Public Health examined how trends in illegal immigration between 1990 and 2014 compare to arrest or drug overdose data during that same time. The results provided evidence that illegal immigration did not increase the prevalence of drug or alcohol problems.
That research runs contrary to claims that illegal immigration leads to more crime, he said.
“They just really are not related,” he said.
