MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT IMMIGRATION
Few things are as destructive as the spread of misinformation. Collected below is science worth sharing to help dispel the myths.
*Note: Evidence and citations below are not intended to be comprehensive or exhaustive. Those interested in comprehensiveness are encouraged to research the topic further through peer-reviewed scholarly sources such as those provided as well as the research articles cited in the articles referenced below.
Myth: Immigrants are dangerous criminals.
Fact: Evidence shows that immigrants commit fewer crimes than U.S. born citizens.
Research Findings:
"undocumented immigrants had the lowest offending rates overall for both total felony crime (see exhibit 1) and violent felony crime (see exhibit 2) compared to other groups. U.S.-born citizens had the highest offending rates overall for most crime types, with documented immigrants generally falling between the other two groups... undocumented immigrants had the lowest homicide arrest rates throughout the entire study period, averaging less than half the rate at which U.S.-born citizens were arrested for homicide... Every other violent and property crime type the researchers examined followed the same general pattern. The offending rates of undocumented immigrants were consistently lower than both U.S.-born citizens and documented immigrants for assault, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, theft, and arson."
Source: National Institute of Justice
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU01/20250122/117827/HHRG-119-JU01-20250122-SD004.pdf
Research Findings:
"research suggests that immigrants, including those without legal status, are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans."
Source: National Institute of Justice
https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/crimes/research-immigration-and-crime
Research Findings:
"Numerous studies show that immigration is not linked to higher levels of crime, but rather the opposite."
Source: Research articles cited in article at Brennan Center
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/debunking-myth-migrant-crime-wave
Research Findings:
"Opponents of immigration often argue that immigrants drive up crime rates. But newly released research from Stanford economist Ran Abramitzky and his co-authors finds that hasn’t been the case in America for the last 140 years."
Source: Study by Ran Abramitzky reported at Standford
https://siepr.stanford.edu/news/mythical-tie-between-immigration-and-crime
FOR FURTHER READING:
Abramitzky, Ran, Leah Platt Boustan, Elisa Jácome, Santiago Pérez & Juan David Torres. 2023. "Law-Abiding Immigrants: The Incarceration Gap Between Immigrants and the US-born, 1870–2020." National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved August 27, 2025 https://www.nber.org/papers/w31440
Adelman, Robert, Lesley Williams Reid, Gail Markle, Saskia Weiss and Charles Jaret. 2017. "Urban crime rates and the changing face of immigration: Evidence across four decades." Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, 15:1, 52-77
Feldmeyer, Ben, Diana Sun, Casey T. Harris, and Francis T. Cullen. 2022. "More immigrants, less death: An analysis of immigration effects on county-level drug overdose deaths, 2000–2015." Criminology 60(4): 667-699
Gunadi, Christian. "On the association between undocumented immigration and crime in the United States, Oxford Economic Papers, Volume 73, Issue 1, January 2021, Pages 200–224, https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpz057
Han, Sungil and Alex R. Piquero. 2021. "Is It Dangerous to Live in Neighborhoods with More Immigrants? Assessing the Effects of Immigrant Concentration on Crime Patterns." Crime & Delinquency, 68(1), 52-79. https://doi.org/10.1177/00111287211007736
Harris, C. T., Mutimer, A., & Thomas, S. (2021). From Both Near and Far: Examining the Diverse Regions of Origin for Immigration and Its Relationship with Crime Across United States Communities, 2015. Justice Quarterly, 40(1), 51–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2021.2013932
Michael T. Light, Ty Miller, and Brian C. Kelly: Undocumented Immigration, Drug Problems, and Driving Under the Influence in the United States, 1990–2014 American Journal of Public Health 107, 1448_1454, https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2017.303884
Light, Michael T. and Ty Miller. 2018. "Does Undocumented Immigration Increase Violent Crime?" Criminology 56(2): 370-401.
O'Brien, B. G., Collingwood, L., & El-Khatib, S. O. (2017). The Politics of Refuge: Sanctuary Cities, Crime, and Undocumented Immigration. Urban Affairs Review, 55(1), 3-40. https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087417704974
Wortley, Scot. 2009. "Introduction. "The Immigration-Crime Connection: Competing Theoretical Perspectives." Journal of Internatioanl Migration & Integration 10:349–358
