Fed. Commission Finds 42% of Federal Crimes Committed by Illegals
Are illegal aliens just good people searching for a better life, or criminals who bring problems over the border?
That question has been at the core of the immigration debate for years. As with most things, the answer is somewhere in the middle … but an eye-opening new report makes it clear that illegal immigrants commit far more crimes than many on the left would have you believe.
The United States Sentencing Commission has released its annual report, which digs deep into federal crime data for the 2018 fiscal year. This report is a goldmine of information about offenders at the federal level — and it contains a fact that needs to be seen by every American concerned about immigration.
“For 2017, data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey shows non-citizens comprise about 7 percent of the country’s population, but the 2018 Annual Report and Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics shows they committed more than 40 percent of all federal crimes,” The American Mirror noted.
Indeed, Hispanics are dramatically over-represented in the federal sentencing data, with illegal immigration a major reason.
“In fiscal year 2018, 54.3 percent of all offenders were Hispanic, 21.2 percent were White, 20.6 percent were Black, and 3.8 percent were of another race. Non-U.S. Citizens accounted for 42.7 percent of all federal offenders,” the government report said.
“Immigration cases accounted for the largest single group of offenses in fiscal year 2018, comprising 34.4 percent of all reported cases,” the government document continued.
Of course, a skeptic might point out that this by itself isn’t so surprising. Illegal immigration is a federal crime and widespread, so it makes sense that aliens — many of them Hispanic — receive a high number of federal sentences.
But the numbers show deeply disturbing trends.
It isn’t just that aliens are being prosecuted for immigration crimes. Actually, they are also committing many other crimes at an alarming rate.
“Cases involving drug possession, for example, were nearly evenly split between citizens and non-citizens with 361 and 339, respectively,” The American Mirror noted. But remember, non-citizens are only about 7 percent of the population.
“In other words, non-citizens violated federal drug possession laws at a rate roughly seven times higher than citizens,” [emphasis added] the outlet wrote.
We already know that drug crimes are common near the border, but what do the numbers say about illegal immigrants and other offenses? It’s the same story: They commit crimes in numbers far above what you’d expect from the population data.
“Statistics were similar for violations of national defense, with 30 percent of cases involving non-citizens, as well as money laundering at 27 percent, drug trafficking at 24 percent and murder at 18 percent,” The American Mirror wrote based on the government report.
And even in the cases when a non-citizen’s only crime was illegal immigration, it appears that a high number of them were repeat offenders. At the federal level, crossing the border illegally the first time is a misdemeanor and rarely results in jail time. It is repeatedly re-entering illegally that becomes a felony, punishable by prison.
Yet a shockingly high number of non-citizens were sentenced to prison, which indicates that they were either repeat offenders or committed more serious crimes while also being in the country illegally.
“In the vast majority of cases involving both citizens and non-citizens – 87.8 percent – the offenders were sentenced to prison,” American Mirror wrote. “For the roughly 29,000 non-citizens convicted of federal crimes in fiscal year 2018, that statistic was 98.5 percent, according to the report.”
What these numbers suggest is that conservatives have been mostly correct on this issue. Even if you set aside the immigration-only offenses, the high rate of lawlessness from noncitizens should be eye-opening.
And it is legal immigrants, including Latinos, who ought to be the most frustrated by this situation. People who ignore America’s laws have spiked the statistics to make Hispanics the majority of all federal criminals, tarnishing the reputation of millions of lawful immigrants who try to do the right thing.
Something needs to change. There is indeed a crisis at the border and with immigration as a whole — and pretending otherwise is simply dishonest.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
