Introduction
In the late 1990s and the early 2000s, the US witnessed an upsurge in the number of illegal immigrants who moved and resided in the country without extreme government intervention and control. On the one hand, such high numbers of illegal immigrants provided adequate cheap labor for businesses to grow. On the other hand, the lack of regulation has been associated with security concerns, such as September 11, 2001, bomb attacks by al Qaeda. The issue of illegal immigrants in the US has become controversial in modern times, with the current Trump administration seeking to seal all the loopholes that people exploit to remain in the country illegally. Government proponents argue that illegal immigrants are a threat to the US on various fronts. Economically, they are accused of taking jobs that could be reserved for Americans leading to high unemployment rates. In terms of national security, such individuals are seen as potential threats as they could be exploited easily by terrorist groups. This paper argues that illegal immigrants are not a threat to the US as supported by the available evidence in the literature.
Illegal Immigrants – A Threat to the US?
The conventional and commonly held view about illegal immigrants is that they are directly responsible for increasing cases of crime in the US. In the early years of the 21st century, this belief was so strong that some debates in Congress insinuated that some countries deliberately encouraged serial convicts to immigrate to the US (Moehling and Piehl 3). Additionally, illegal immigration was seen as the reason for the emergence of criminal institutions, such as the mafia. The association between illegal immigration and increased crime rates in the US dates back to over a century ago. In modern times, the debate about the threat posed by these individuals in the US shaped the 2016 presidential elections, with President Trump promoting the ideology that undocumented persons in the country are a grave threat for various reasons. These arguments have influenced the decision to build the infamous wall along the US-Mexican border under the Trump administration. However, it is important to conduct extensive evidence-based research to ascertain whether these perceptions are baseless or they could be verified. The available literature shows that illegal immigrants are not a threat to the US.
The assumption that illegal immigrants present a real security threat to the US and its citizens is based on the standard economic theory, which is erroneous in this context. Becker was the first thinker to theorize that before persons could engage in criminal activity, they first weigh the underlying costs and benefits (175). As such, if the expected costs, especially in terms of foregone labor market opportunities and corresponding punitive penalties, are high, an individual is likely not to engage in the crime. Therefore, when this theory is applied to the illegal immigrant context in the US, it follows that, expectedly, these individuals will engage in criminal activities because they are unemployed, hence unlikely to forego any labor market opportunities, such as salaries and employment. However, this theory is countervailing in itself because when illegal immigrants are caught in a crime, they are likely to be punished harshly under the law as compared to their native counterparts. As such, the punitive repercussions after committing a felony are deterrent enough to prevent them from getting involved in such activities.
Therefore, based on the foregoing argument, the empirical available empirical evidence shows that illegal immigrants are not likely to engage in crime. According to Orrenius and Zavodny, “A large body of empirical research concludes that immigrants are less likely than similar US natives to commit crimes, and the incarceration rate is lower among the foreign-born than among the native-born” (53). This assertion goes against the principles of the standard theory discussed earlier. However, there are various plausible explanations as to why illegal immigrants would engage less in crime, contrary to the general expectations. First, the issue of punitive punishment, which entrenches deterrence, is a major contributing factor. For instance, if caught in a crime, illegal immigrants face the possibility of deportation, which they would not want because they have good reasons why they left their countries of origin in the first place. Second, Orrenius and Zavodny argue that immigrants are normally selected from the general populations in their country of origin, and thus those with criminal tendencies are unlikely to become international immigrants (54). This understanding negates the claim that illegal immigrants pose a security threat to the US and its citizens.
Additionally, there is overwhelming evidence that children for illegal immigrants – mostly referred to as second-generation immigrants, are more likely to engage in criminal activities as compared to their parents (Bersani 60; Bersani et al. 148). This observation is baffling because the second-generation individuals normally have higher education levels, thus better employment access rates as compared to their parents. However, conventionally, it is expected that the uneducated and unemployed are likely to engage in crime based on the standard economic theory. These findings could be interpreted within the dynamics of the larger American society and argue that the second-generation immigrants adjust their behaviors to match that of their native peers. The view that illegal immigrants are not as dangerous as presented in the mainstream media could be explained by the statistics highlighted in Figure 1 concerning how Americans feel about this group of individuals. This is one of the most effective visuals to deconstruct the fallacy that illegal immigrants are a threat to the US. If this assertion were true, Americans would be of a different opinion. However, the visual presented in Figure 1 has five different poll studies, and they all indicate that the majority of Americans opine that illegal immigrants are beneficial to the country.
Another factor that contributes to the wrong presumption that illegal immigrants are dangerous and criminal is the fact that the majority of them are young males. In the US, young males in any ethnic group are disproportionately associated with criminal behavior, and thus this attribute is not peculiar to illegal immigrants. Therefore, given that most illegal immigrants fall into this demographic, there is a possibility of misrepresentation of data concerning the prevalence of crime among individuals in this group. Orrenius and Zavodny argue that studies comparing “immigrants’ and US natives’ criminal behavior and incarceration rates tend to focus on relatively young men, leaving the broader question unanswered” (53). However, the unanswered question in the preceding statement could be addressed using other societal parameters. For instance, if illegal immigrants are highly likely to commit crimes as opposed to Native Americans, then areas with many immigrants are expected to experience high levels of crime incidences.
However, the available evidence does not support the above claim – “crime rates are no higher, and are perhaps lower, in areas with more immigrants” (Orrenius and Zavodny 54). According to Pew Research conducted in 2019, the majority of illegal immigrants are found in 20 metro areas where they make six out of every ten residents (Passel and Cohn). Therefore, it would be expected that crime rates in these areas would be above the national average. However, analysis by Maciang found that crime rates in such metro areas are over 10 percent lower than in other areas where the number of illegal immigrants is low. Similarly, the state of California could be a good case study in understanding the nature of the correlation between illegal immigrants and crime rates. According to Mustiga, starting from the 21st century, California has witnessed an unprecedented inflow of 3.5 million immigrants, out of which close to 2.5 million are illegal. Therefore, going by the theory that this group of individuals is behind spikes in crime, California would be expected to have high crime rates. However, it has witnessed a 50 percent drop in the crime rate during the same period (Mustiga).
Similarly, at the national level, empirical evidence negates the claim that illegal immigrants are a threat to the US. A study conducted in 2017 by the CATO Institute found that during that year, the estimated numbers of incarcerated individuals in the US were 63,994, 122,939, and 2,007,502 legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, and natives respectively (Landgrave and Nowrasteh 2). This observation could be rebutted by arguing that raw numbers do not account for various statistical inferences, and thus while the incarcerated illegal immigrants could be fewer as compared to natives, when expressed as a percentage, the prevalence of incarceration paints a different picture. However, based on the same study, “The incarceration rate was 1.53 percent for natives, 0.85 percent for illegal immigrants, and 0.47 percent for legal immigrants…Illegal immigrants are 44 percent less likely to be incarcerated than natives” (Landgrave and Nowrasteh 2). These empirical findings are a clear indication that illegal natives are erroneously associated with high crime rates in the US, which informs the fallacious assumption that they pose a security threat to the country.
Another way to look at this problem is by assessing the impact of policies preventing illegal immigrants from entering the country on the level of crime. The Trump administration has focused on border enforcement efforts to ensure that undocumented immigrants are kept away. Even before 2017, the US has escalated its efforts to rid itself of illegal immigrants. By 2015, the probability of immigrants being arrested along the border had risen to 55 percent from 44 percent in 2000 (Alden 482). Therefore, it would be expected that the number of crimes in the US would have gone down in the last decade. However, Orrenius and Zavodny note that the reduced number of illegal immigrants in the US has not led to a commensurate decrease in the rate of crime over the last few years (55). This assertion points to the overlooked probability that the high cases of crime in the US are not positively associated with the presence or absence of illegal immigrants in the country. It is a clear indication that American citizens pose a major threat to the country as compared to undocumented immigrants.
Additionally, it is important to look at what business owners in the US think about the presence of undocumented immigrants in the country. The cartoon shown on the left is a perfect visual presentation of how employers feel about the issue of illegal immigrants. The black and white color in the picture is the best aesthetic component as it contrasts what the public is meant to think about this group of individuals and the reality of businesses and the economic wellbeing of the country in general. Both domestic and international marketplaces have become highly competitive due to the effects of globalization. Therefore, companies have to look for ways to reduce the cost of production and remain competitive in the market or lose out to competitors. One of the ways of achieving this objective is through cheap labor, which explains why illegal immigrants are highly beneficial to the US economy as opposed to being a threat. In the cartoon above, it is clear that undocumented persons are willing to work for wages that ordinary Americans would not accept. Therefore, such individuals are not taking away jobs from Americans, which would be considered a threat, but they are filling an important gap in the labor market.
However, proponents of the current government policies seeking to criminalize illegal immigration in the country would argue that official data shows a clear relationship between these people and high crime rates. While some of the available statistics support this position, this paper has shown that such data could be misrepresented. According to Mustiga, data could be misleading because “researchers have often relied on arrest and conviction numbers, which in certain situations, and a given jurisdiction, might see an uptick one year.” For instance, if in a given area prosecutors prioritize violations associated with immigration, the data will show high incidence rates of crime related to illegal immigrants. Statistically, it could be understood how such conclusions are arrived at in various studies that inform government policies. However, such studies do not control for various factors, such as separating immigration demeanors from criminal behavior. Additionally, data concerning crime by immigrants does not break down the status of the involved individual, whether illegal or legal immigrants. Such confounding factors affect the reliability and validity of these data, and thus this information should not be used to make blanket statements concerning the threat posed by illegal immigrants.
Conclusion
The question of illegal immigrants and the alleged threat that they pose to the US and its citizens is a highly contentious issue in modern American society. The conventional understanding holds that undocumented persons are prone to engage in crime because they are unemployed, mainly young males, and uneducated. This notion has long informed government policies when dealing with such individuals. However, this paper has shown that, contrary to this popular opinion, illegal immigrants are not a threat to the US. The empirical evidence presented in this paper adequately supports this position with veritable data. For instance, the proportion of incarcerated illegal immigrants is lower as compared to that of American citizens. Additionally, in areas where this group of individuals resides in large numbers, such as in California, the rate of crime has been declining over the last few years. Therefore, from an objective perspective, it suffices to argue that illegal immigrants do not pose any meaningful threat to the US.
Works Cited
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