www.justiceblind.com

Is illegal immigration a problem?  Specifically, does illegal immigration increase crime?

 First, some numbers: 

• The Center for Immigration Studies reports that there are 35.2 million foreign-born people living in the United States, making up about 12 percent of the population.
• There are about 9.7 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
• Immigration to North Carolina has rapidly increased.  Further, Hispanics are having more children than any other group.
• Seven out of 100 North Carolina residents were Hispanic in 2004, when the Hispanic population was 600,913. Of those, about 55 percent were either U.S. citizens or had legal immigration status.
• Immigrants accounted for 27.5% of the state's population growth from 1990 to 2004. 

In North Carolina, we can easily see the impact of immigration with some figures and tables

 
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 Now, the claim by our Congressional representative:

 Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.: “When you put the numbers out there, then it puts a reality onto it that bolsters what people feel in their gut and what they know is a problem.”  “I'm a very logical person.  I like to start with the facts."

 So what are the facts?  Are immigration and crime linked?

 There are theoretical reasons to expect immigrants to be more involved in crime.  Relevant theories include social disorganization theory, strain theory, social learning theory, among others.  Immigrants are younger, suffer from more poverty, more single-parent households, lower education, etc.  They are paid less for their work and are involved in less permanent jobs (and they also suffer from more discrimination, strain and stress).

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 Yet, crime statistics show immigrants are less involved in criminality than natives.  They commit less crime and recidivate less than natives.  Possible reasons include: their families and neighborhoods are more cohesive than ours; they tend to be deeply religious; they work very hard (despite poverty) to attain the “American Dream”; and they have a lot more to lose than natives.

In terms of North Carolina, it is difficult to connect immigration and crime because there is no victimization survey for the state … all we have are official crime statistics that measure arrests and imprisonment.  Looking at national statistics clearly shows no effect of immigration on the crime rate.

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 So, why do politicians promote fear over immigrants?  Part of the problem comes from criminal justice statistics (like high numbers of arrests in some areas for some types of crimes).

For example, Forsyth County District Attorney Tom Keith reported in 2006 that about a third of people recently sent to state prison for drug-trafficking in Forsyth County are Hispanic, and more than half of the 86 gang members identified by local law enforcement are Hispanic.  Then he said: “Outside of drug trafficking, they’re really very law-abiding citizens.”

In fact, criminal justice statistics like incarceration statistics can't prove that a certain group commits more crime.  The thing you have to be careful about is not using those statistics to prove a problem.  Those statistics are a function not only of criminality but also of the focus of our criminal justice system as well.  If we are looking them and if we are in their neighborhoods, we will be arresting them more.

In my opinion, the hype over immigration is the latest “moral panic” about crime and criminal justice, and follows similar scares such as crack cocaine (late 1980s), violent juveniles (early 1990s), child kidnapping (mid 1990s), school violence (late 1990s), illicit drug use (late 1990s), and terrorism (early 2000s).

 Moral panics exist when a real social problem is blown way out of proportion to the threats actually posed.  In moral panics, social policies are promoted that otherwise could not be promoted without the fear associated with the hyped social problem.

 My advice to policy-makers is we ought to be very careful not to cut off our noses to spite our faces.  That is, by restricting immigration, we may actually hurt ourselves.

 Consider for example, research by the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise (part of the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC Chapel Hill).  Backed by the N.C. Bankers Association and the Mexican Consulate in Raleigh, it study focused on the statewide economic impact of Hispanics and also gave a snapshot of the contributions and costs related to Hispanic residents in the state's 100 counties.

Key findings:

·        Seven out of 100 North Carolina residents were Hispanic in 2004, when the Hispanic population was 600,913. Of those, about 55 percent were either U.S. citizens or had legal immigration status.

·        27.5% of the state's population growth from 1990 to 2004.

·        45 percent of residents in North Carolina are here without documentation – they cost the state budget more than they put in.

·        Hispanic residents contribute $756 million in tax revenue and cost the state budget $817 million in education, health care and corrections, or $102 per resident, for a net loss of $61 million.

·        Yet, the overall economic effect was estimated at more than $9 billion, through purchases, taxes and labor.

·        Hispanics in North Carolina had after-tax income of $8.3 billion in 2004.  The study estimated that 20 percent of that was returned to family in other countries, saved or used to pay interest.  The remainder rippled through the economy to create a total impact of $9.2 billion.

·        If immigration trends continue at their current pace, the effect could increase to $18 billion within three years.

·        The indirect effect that the Hispanic worker has had on consumer prices is positive for it lowers prices on ordinary goods like food and housing.  For example, the construction industry in North Carolina would pay about $1 billion more in labor costs without the Hispanic worker.

So, are immigrants exploiting us or being exploited?

·        Businesses save $1.9 billion (1.4 percent of total wages) on the wages paid to Hispanic workers.

·        Hispanics filled one in three new jobs created in the state between 1995 and 2005.  They account for 29 percent of all construction workers in the state.  Male workers are concentrated in construction, and females are concentrated in maid and janitorial services, food processing and dry cleaning.

·        Between 1995 and 2005, North Carolina added 687,579 workers, a 22.1 percent increase, to its labor force.  North Carolina’s Hispanic workforce expanded by 241,602, a 431 percent increase.  Hispanics thus accounted for 35.1 percent of the state’s overall workforce increase between 1995 and 2005.

·        Our construction industry absorbed the largest increase of Hispanic workers (111,630), followed by retail and wholesale trade (26,769).  Hispanics today account for nearly a third of all construction workers in the state.

·        Hispanic workers grew across virtually all North Carolina industries, even those hardest hit by increased global competition during the past decade.  For example, while North Carolina’s manufacturers shed 327,470 workers between 1995 and 2005, the number of Hispanics employed by North Carolina manufacturing firms actually expanded by 14,786.

·        In 2005, nearly three-fourths of all Hispanics in North Carolina were employed in four industries: construction (42.2 percent), wholesale and retail trade (11.5 percent), manufacturing (10. 7 percent), and agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (9.2 percent).  Hispanics are concentrated mainly in blue-collar occupations in the construction trades, agriculture, trucking, and janitorial and maid services.

·        While education and health services is the top employment sector in North Carolina (20 percent of the workforce), it employs only 4.4 percent of the state’s Hispanics.

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