The Trump administration’s first year of
immigration policy has relied on claims that immigrants bring crime into
America. President Trump’s latest target is sanctuary cities.
“Every
day, sanctuary cities release illegal immigrants, drug dealers, traffickers,
gang members back into our communities,” he said last
week. “They’re safe havens for just some terrible people.”
As of 2017, according to Gallup polls, almost half of Americans agreed that immigrants make crime worse. But
is it true that immigration drives crime? Many studies have shown that it does
not.
Immigrant
populations in the United States have been growing fast for decades now. Crime
in the same period, however, has moved in the opposite direction, with the
national rate of violent crime today well below what it was in 1980.
