Immigrants and Crime: Separating Myth from Reality with Hard Data
You’ve probably heard the same tired narrative repeated every time immigration comes up in the news—“They’re bringing crime.” But if you’re working in policy, law enforcement, or any area related to community development, you know the truth demands more than soundbites. The relationship between immigration and crime isn’t just misunderstood—it’s often intentionally distorted. If you're going to make decisions based on reality, not rhetoric, you need the numbers. You need the studies, the patterns, and the hard data that can actually shape policy, policing, and public trust. So let’s go straight to the facts and tackle the most persistent myths about immigrants and crime. The Numbers Don't Lie—More Immigrants, Less Crime Start with the big picture. From 1980 to 2022, the percentage of immigrants in the U.S. population more than doubled—from 6.2% to nearly 14%. During that same time, crime rates didn’t go up—they went down. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting data shows a drop in v...