In August, 2024, in The Problem of Immigrant Crime and Its Apologists, I noted that one of the arguments that those defending mass immigration are fond of making is that immigrants commit less crime than the native-born. My central point in that essay was that, conceding the claim, if those immigrants weren’t in the United States, then there would be that much less crime. In late December of last year, John R. Lott Jr., president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, penned a piece in The New York Post reinforcing my point by examining the situation in New York. I want to amplify Lott’s findings in this essay and provide commentary.
Addressing the crowd that opposes deportations, wielding the claim that immigrants commit less crime than native-born Americans (illegal and legal immigrations are lumped together to create the ruse we’re supposed to take as relevant), Lott contends that recently released data from New York suggests otherwise, finding that illegal aliens are represented in the state’s prison and jail population at a rate significantly higher than their share of the overall population. In other words, the opposite is true: illegal immigrants are overrepresented in serious crime. Of course, illegal immigrants are already a crime, since they broke the law entering the United States without permission. Here we are talking about crimes committed after they illegally enter the country. (Many illegal aliens are criminals before they invade the nation.)
According to Department of Homeland Security data cited in the article, 7,113 undocumented immigrants are currently incarcerated in New York correctional facilities for offenses including aggravated assault, burglary, drug crimes, homicide, robbery, and sexual offenses. Lott also notes that thousands of illegal aliens with criminal records have been released because New York authorities did not honor federal immigration detainer requests. Why would New York and other blue cities refuse to cooperate with the federal government, that body that is charged with defending the nation’s borders and its internal security? I will answer that question in the conclusion of this essay.
Lott compares the estimated illegal alien population in New York—between 676,000 and 825,000 people, or roughly 3.4 percent to 4.15 percent of the state’s population—to their reported 14 percent share of the incarcerated population. Based on this comparison, Lott estimates that undocumented immigrants are overrepresented in New York’s correctional system by more than three times their population share. He further argues that this estimate may actually understate criminality among illegal aliens because some are deported before completing prison sentences or are removed before entering the prison system at all. Moreover, state policies that limit immigration enforcement in and around courthouses as factors affecting the available data.
Beyond crime rates, Lott argues that incarcerating undocumented immigrants places a substantial financial burden on taxpayers, estimating that annual incarceration costs in New York exceed a billion dollars. That is one city. Adding up the costs around the nation would likely find many billions of taxpayer dollars being spent on the illegal aliens in lockup. Deporting these criminals would free up billions of dollars that could be spent on education and infrastructure, reducing debt, or reducing taxes.
Lott cites federal data indicating that hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants in the United States have criminal records and links increased illegal immigration during the Biden administration to rising violent crime rates. He notes that immigration enforcement efforts under President Trump are contributing to declining crime rates, but as I have shown on this platform, progressives are fighting him all the way. (See also Crime, Immigration, and the Economy; What is the Relationship of Immigration to Crime?)
Returning to the question of why New York and other blue cities refuse to cooperate with the federal government, the answer is obvious. Democrats do not care about American citizens. The party led the way in ghettoizing blacks and offshoring the jobs of black and white workers. The public is not the party’s master, as it should be in a representative democratic republic. Their master is the globalist engineering the denationalization of the West.
Crime and disorder disorganize communities, disrupting culture and family, and corrupting the rule of law. What is beautiful is made ugly. Classical architecture becomes tacky, a canvas for graffiti, and a target for vandals. Brutalism prevails in its stead. Defining down deviance normalizes pathology and redirects the public to see those reclaiming the streets as reactionary. Over time, the native population is demoralized.
In this way, patriotism is delegitimized, and many patriots are shamed for demanding national integrity. This puts a chill in the air. Changing a country’s demographic composition disempowers the citizenry. It, moreover, provides bodies Democrats need for money and votes.
Securing political command of the nation for the project of managed decline requires a compliant political party, and Democrats are eager to perform that function.
freedom and reason 