Letter: Trump has it wrong on crime by immigrants

Friday August 11, 2018

President wildly overstates deaths caused by the undocumented.

Editor:
A letter writer justified the Trump administration's heartless separation of children from their parents by citing President Donald Trump's claim that 63,000 Americans have been killed by undocumented immigrants since 2001 ("Criminal activities have consequences," Reading Eagle, Aug. 4). Even the most cursory fact check will show that number is not just false, but dramatically so. It should be obvious that 25 percent of all murders in the U.S. were not committed by less than 3 percent of the population.


The truth is that immigrants - both documented and undocumented - commit murders at a rate well below that of the non-immigrant population. An independent Cato Institute study of crime statistics in Texas found that homicide conviction rates for undocumented immigrants were 25 percent below those of native-born Americans, and homicide conviction rates for documented immigrants were a staggering 87 percent below those of native-born Americans. This study is consistent with others throughout the country.


Trump's lies are deliberate and dangerous and are aimed at fomenting fear of and rage toward the immigrant population. In this post-fact atmosphere, I think that we all have a responsibility to seek the truth and to reject politicians and pundits who peddle falsehoods in order to promote their own agendas.

Cathy Badal
Mount Penn


Trump has it wrong on crime by immigrants