Ed at Captain's Quarters doesn't think much of a WND article on illegal aliens and crime.
Those claims usually get reported at some point by World News Daily, a hardline conservative news service, which doesn't usually miss an opportunity to relay the latest wild-eyed claim. Today, WND reports that Rep. Steve King (R-IA) put out 'statistics" that illegal immigrants murder over 4,000 Americans every year:
Ed is right to say that we should not demonize illegal immigrants just for the sake of scoring points against illegal immigration. But if WND's numbers aren't to be trusted, neither are the quick thumb-nailed gross population numbers Ed uses in his post to suggest the WND article is absurd. You can see both sets at the links above. But let's look at some real numbers.
From the Center for Immigration Studies:
In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens.
That data alone tells you you can't use Ed's gross population numbers of illegal immigrants versus national crime. Clearly there are densely populated areas where illegal immigrants are responsible for an incredibly high proportion of violent crime.
A confidential California Department of Justice study reported in 1995 that 60 percent of the bloody 18th Street Gang in California is illegal (estimated membership: 20,000); police officers say the proportion is undoubtedly much greater. The gang collaborates with the Mexican Mafia, the dominant force in California prisons, on complicated drug distribution schemes, extortion, and drive-by assassinations, and is responsible for an assault or robbery every day in Los Angeles County. The gang has dramatically expanded its numbers over the last two decades by recruiting recently arrived youngsters, a vast proportion
illegal, from Central America and Mexico.
Here's a pdf file from the US House of Representatives. It discusses the incredible crime problem in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley as a result of gangs comprised of mostly illegal immigrants. The Shenandoah Valley is not East LA, yet the crime problem is large and ugly, involving multiple murders.
This below via NewsMax quoting reliable identified sources:
"The U.S. Justice Department estimated that 270,000 illegal immigrants served jail time nationally in 2003. Of those, 108,000 were in California. Some estimates show illegals now make up half of California's prison population, creating a massive criminal subculture that strains state budgets and creates a nightmare for local police forces."
Citing an Urban Institute study, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies Steven Camorata noted in 2004: "Roughly 17 percent of the prison population at the federal level are illegal aliens. That's a huge number since illegal aliens only account for about 3 percent of the total population."
Federal Prisons aren't reserved for jay walkers and that last item suggests illegal aliens are incarcerated there at almost six times their percent of the gross population. This below from Captain's Quarters:
If King and WND have their numbers correct, that would mean that illegals commit 26.2% of all murders in the US. However, they only comprise less than 7% of the American population, even if one accepts the figure of 20 million illegals here now. Doesn't that seem just a bit strange to anyone?
Using Ed's 7% of population and the proportionality of serious crime among illegal immigrants, I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable saying they weren't responsible for potentially 20-something percent of murders.
Back to NewsMax:
"In March 2000, Congress made public Department of Justice statistics showing that, over the previous five years, the INS had released over 35,000 criminal aliens instead of deporting them. Over 11,000 of those released went on to commit serious crimes, over 1,800 of which were violent ones [including 98 homicides, 142 sexual assaults, and 44 kidnappings].
From California to New York and Heather Mac Donald's reasonably well-known article on illegal aliens and crime:
On September 5, 2001, his handpicked charter-revision committee ruled that New York could still require that its employees keep immigration information confidential to preserve trust between immigrants and government. Six days later, several visa-overstayers participated in the most devastating attack on the city and the country in history.
New York conveniently forgot the 1996 federal ban on sanctuary laws until a gang of five Mexicans—four of them illegal—abducted and brutally raped a 42-year-old mother of two near some railroad tracks in Queens. The NYPD had already arrested three of the illegal aliens numerous times for such crimes as assault, attempted robbery, criminal trespass, illegal gun possession, and drug offenses. The department had never notified the INS.
Is anyone 100% positive of the impact illegal aliens have on serious crime? Maybe not. After all, on both Federal and State levels, the concept of sanctuary cities combined with civil rights apologists have done an effective job of covering them up. So much for America's right to know.
What I do know from just Googling a little bit beyond the WND article is that, whatever the impact, it's pretty darned serious. And who can forget the most heinous crime America has ever seen, the one on 9/11. What was the murder rate that year when a handful of illegal aliens murdered almost 3,000 of us in less than an hour?
