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Studies from the Immigrant Policy Center, Public Policy Institute of California, and Harvard Professor Robert Sampson have each found that immigrants in general commit fewer crimes and are incarcerated at a lower rate than native-born citizens.

Myths about Immigrants


MYTH: America has "uncontrolled" and "unprecedented" immigration.

  • While the immigrant population is the highest it’s ever been in absolute numbers, it isn’t so when compared to the equally increasing total U.S. population. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the percentage of immigrants has fluctuated within 5-15% of the U.S. population. As of 2006, immigrants are 12% of the U.S. population.  (U.S. Census Bureau, "Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born Population of the United States: 1850-1990." February 1999, and Pew Hispanic Center, “A Statistical Portrait of the Foreign-Born Population at Mid-Decade.” October 2006)

MYTH: Most undocumented immigrants are Mexican adult males illegally crossing the border.

  • There are between 11.5 and 12 million unauthorized migrants in 2006. The calculations reported suggest that roughly 4.5 to 6 million (or 40 to 50% of the total) entered the country legally through ports of entry. (Pew Hispanic Center, May 2006)
  • There were 5.4 million adult males in the unauthorized population in 2005, accounting for 49% of the total. There were 3.9 million adult females accounting for 35% of the population. In addition, there were 1.8 million children in the unauthorized population, or 16% of the total. Among adults, males make up 58% of the unauthorized population while females make up 42%. (Pew Hispanic Center, March 2006)
  • About 56 percent of the unauthorized population was from Mexico, and another 22 percent from elsewhere in Latin America. The rest come from Asia, Europe, Canada, Africa, and elsewhere. (Immigration Policy Center, Spring 2007)

MYTH: Illegal immigrants are “by definition” criminals.

  • “Being illegally present in the U.S. has always been a civil, not criminal, violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and subsequent deportation and associated administrative processes are civil proceedings.” (Congressional Research Service, “Immigration Enforcement Within the United States.” April 2006)
  • In Sept. 2007, former presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said on The Glenn Beck Program, “Glenn, it's not a crime. I know that's very hard for people to understand, but it's not a federal crime…In fact, when you throw an immigrant out of the country, it's not a criminal proceeding. It's a civil proceeding.”

MYTH: Today’s immigrants are different than those 100 years ago: they “refuse” to assimilate.

  • According to a recent United Way of Salt Lake survey, more than 80 percent of immigrants and refugees say they have formally tried to learn English. Many more say they’ve tried by speaking English to friends or by listening to English-language radio and television.  (United Way of Salt Lake, June 2007)
  • Learning a second language can be difficult for any adult, but top barriers to English acquisition for immigrants (who often work 2 or 3 separate jobs) include lack of time, lack of child care, and difficultly of task. (United Way of Salt Lake, June 2007)
  • All social science data points to the fact that immigrants are assimilating as fast as previous generations of immigrants. While immigrant parents may struggle with learning a new language, 91% of second-generation Hispanics can speak English well, as can 97% of third-generation Hispanics. (Pew Hispanic Center, Nov 2007)

MYTH: Immigrants are violent criminals “overflowing” our prisons.

  • In 2000, 3 percent of the 45.2 million males age 18 to 39 in the United States were in federal or state prisons or local jails at the time of the census. The incarceration rate of native-born men in this age group was 5 times higher than the incarceration rate of foreign-born men. (Immigration Policy Center, Spring 2007)
  • Among the U.S.-born, 9.8 percent of all male high-school dropouts were in jail or prison in 2000. Only 1.3 percent of immigrant men who were high-school dropouts were incarcerated. (Immigration Policy Center, Spring 2007)

MYTH: The majority of Americans are for deportation-only solutions.

  • Despite increasingly anti-immigrant rhetoric, in most recent national polls, only 25-35% favored “enforcement-only” or “mass deportation.” A moderate to strong majority (51%-83%) favored comprehensive immigration reform that included legalization of undocumented immigrants. (NIF survey of 2007 polls from Washington Post/ABC News, FOX News, NY Times/CBS News, Miami Herald/Zogby, LA Times/Bloomberg, Gallup/USA Today, Pew Research Center, and several university studies)

MYTH: Immigrants are a financial burden on taxpayers.

  • While the myth that undocumented immigrants are an economic drain is widespread, “Every empirical study of illegals’ economic impact demonstrates the opposite…; undocumenteds actually contribute more to public coffers in taxes than they cost in social services.” (Peter L. Reich, “Public Benefits for Undocumented Aliens: State Law Into the Breach Once More,” 21 N.M. L. Rev. 219, 241–42. 1991)
  • Undocumented immigrants are ineligible for most federally funded benefits including cash assistance, food stamps, and SSI.  (Office of Human Services Policy, Department of Health and Human Services)
  • A study by economists Richard Vedder, Lowell Gallaway, and Stephen Moore found that states with relatively high immigration actually experience low unemployment. The economists believed that it is likely immigration opens up many job opportunities for natives. (Richard Vedder, Lowell Gallaway, and Stephen Moore, “Immigration and Unemployment: New Evidence,” Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, Arlington, VA. Mar. 1994.)

MYTH: Undocumented immigration makes us more vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

  • Terrorist attacks have come from extremists of various backgrounds and statuses, including U.S. born citizens, naturalized citizens, legal permanent residents, student visa holders, and European nationals with visa waivers.
  • In 2006, the non-partisan Nixon Center collected hard data on 373 charged, convicted, and/or killed terrorists in Western Europe and North America. “Despite media alarms about terrorists concealed in the illegal traffic crossing the Mexican border, not a single subject entered from Mexico. However, we found 26 subjects residing in Canada. Of our sample, only 6 percent entered their host country illegally.” (Leiken, Robert S. / Brooke, Steven 2006: “The Quantitative Analysis of Terrorism and Immigration: An Initial Exploration”, Terrorism and Political Violence, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 503-521)
  • “[C]reating a process to legalize [undocumented immigrants] would help homeland security by allowing law enforcement agencies to concentrate on border security and tracking down criminals and potential terrorists—rather than chasing after millions of ordinary undocumented aliens.” (Mort Kondracke, executive editor of Roll Call, and co-host of FOX News’ The Beltway Boys)