You Should Be Worried More About Criminals Than Crime Rates

The current cause celebre of the open borders crowd is the oft-repeated canard that illegal aliens are less likely statistically to commit a crime than American citizens. The veracity of that statement is very much in doubt for all sorts of reasons, including the pesky fact that many law enforcement encounters do not inquire or report about the immigration status of criminals. The ink (and blood) spilled on this topic is a distraction for anyone that is worried more about criminals than crime rates. 

At least on paper, the Biden Administration even agrees that criminals are a concern regardless of relative crime rates. Threats to national security and public safety (criminals) are the first and second priority for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In practice, ICE has released at least 617K criminal aliens into the United States. But at least they pretend to care about removing criminals. Their allies persist in denying that criminals should be the focus. 

Instead, the open borders crowd wants to focus on crime rates. You see, even if there are a litany of concrete examples of criminal activity by people allowed to reside in the country illegally, a mass influx of illegal aliens will reduce your likelihood of being a victim of the criminal aliens released. In other words, mass illegal migration increases the pool of potential victims so that any one individual’s risk of being a victim declines. 

Yes, this is the actual argument they are making. Increase the number of potential victims, and your personal risk declines even if criminal aliens walk the red carpet to America. This is horrific thinking that prioritizes political messaging and selfishness over victims and concern for the community. 

The argument about crime and the impact of illegal immigration is not one about rates of crime. It is about the victims and the tragedies left behind by policies that accept high numbers of criminal aliens into the country as a necessary evil. It is simply axiomatic that if you allow more criminals into your country, you will produce more crime and victims than you would if you did not. This is indubitably true even if the rates of crime are reduced by importing 10 million new potential victims to go along with the criminals. 

Your priority determines this entire debate. If you are concerned about crime rates instead of crime victims, then you talk about crime rates of the overall immigrant population as opposed to the guaranteed result of more victims with more criminals. As for me, it seems pretty clear that the Federal government’s priority should be to protect all citizens from crime. In that context, I would prefer policies that prevent criminals from entering the country instead of policies that import more potential victims.