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Description

The United States citizens have a perception that the foreign-born, especially “illegal aliens,” are responsible for the carnage and the reported increase in violent crime rates along the U.S.and Mexico border, and the media and popular myth often perpetuate this mentality. But these perceptions are not supported empirically; instead, they are proven wrong by the scientific evidence. If we understand “carnage” to mean criminal violence and killings, state and national crime data doesn’t support this narrative. Although an increase of property crimes, due to the sheer number of border crossers, have been attributable to traveling migrants — like break-ins, cut fences, and car thefts — violent crime is relatively steady compared to last year. Today an estimated twelve million immigrants are unauthorized, or 30 percent of the foreign-born population of the U.S. Since the early 1990s, over the same time period as legal and especially illegal immigration was reaching historic highs, crime rates have declined in cities and regions of high immigrant concentration (Lee et al., 2001). Research and scientific evidence will show that the purported increase of violent crime along the U.S. Mexico border is not “caused” or even aggravated by immigrants, regardless of their legal status. The following are the main research questions this project seeks to answer: Are migrants causing “carnage” at the U.S. southern border? Is there a link between illegal immigrants and rising U.S. crime rates, and if so, how are the two related statistically?

Publication Date

12-9-2021

City

Logan, UT

Keywords

violent crime, immigration, illegal aliens, crime rates

Disciplines

Sociology

Violent Crime With the Influx of Immigrants Along the Southern US Border.

Included in

Sociology Commons

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