A study of arrest data from the Texas Department of Public Safety between 2012 and 2018 finds that crime rates among undocumented immigrants, including rates of violent crimes, drug crimes, and property crimes, are significantly lower than those among legal immigrants and native-born U.S. citizens and that the data offer no evidence of increasing criminality among undocumented immigrants; the results suggest that removal of undocumented immigrants may not produce decreases in crime.
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Article #20-14704: "Comparing crime rates between undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants, and native-born US citizens in Texas," by Michael T. Light, Jingying He, and Jason P. Robey.
MEDIA CONTACT: Michael T. Light, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI; tel: 586-703-3889; e-mail: < mlight@ssc.wisc.edu >
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences