Illegal immigrant crime rates higher than Cato Institute wants you to believe

[Truth Detector]

As usual, the FAKE media and Democrats are once again gaslighting us on the facts.

Illegal immigrant crime rates higher than Cato Institute wants you to believe​

The claim that illegal aliens commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans may look convincing, but it doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. One of the loudest advocates of this narrative has been the libertarian Cato Institute. Its reports, widely covered by news media, continue to help shape public opinion, including its latest release, “Illegal Immigrant Incarceration Rates, 2010-2023.”

The report claims illegal aliens commit crimes at half the rate of native-born Americans and that legal immigrants commit crimes at just a quarter of the rate.

However, just like Cato’s previous efforts, this report falls short of credible analysis.

Cato’s strategy seems to be working. A McLaughlin & Associates survey commissioned by the Crime Prevention Research Center on April 29, just days after Cato released its latest report, shows that 41.6% of voters believe illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes than U.S. citizens. Only 33.3% think the opposite.

Cato once again leans heavily on data from the American Community Survey to support its claims but never adequately explains how flawed this dataset is for measuring crime rates when applied to illegal immigration. The statistical survey goes to about 3.5 million U.S. addresses yearly and asks participants to respond online or by mail. Cato specifically uses this survey data on prison populations to estimate how many inmates are illegal immigrants.


This method introduces serious bias. The American Community Survey likely undercounts criminal activity among illegal immigrants, leading to skewed results that understate the real scale of the issue.

For example, immigration authorities often deport undocumented immigrants directly from prison before they finish their sentences. Early this year, about half of the people U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement highlighted in enforcement actions were incarcerated at the time of their arrest. This practice skews crime data by underrepresenting illegal aliens in prison population statistics.

ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations records also show that local jails frequently transfer noncitizens arrested on charges such as DUI, drug possession or assault to ICE custody before the offenders serve any time in prison.

Authorities may also deport illegal aliens after arrest, even before conviction or sentencing. These removals typically result from policies that prioritize immigration enforcement over criminal prosecution. Because entering or remaining in the U.S. without authorization already qualifies a person for deportation, a conviction isn’t required to remove them.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jun/24/illegal-immigrant-crime-rates-higher-cato-institute-wants-believe/

 

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Meanwhile, the Cato Institute assumes that anyone receiving federal benefits — such as welfare, health care or Social Security — is in the U.S. legally and that program fraud doesn’t occur. Yet a 2024 audit by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that California improperly claimed $52.7 million in federal Medicaid reimbursements for illegal aliens. Illegal immigrants have fraudulently accessed a variety of programs, including Social Security and public housing.

The American Community Survey adds another layer of bias. Because the survey is voluntary, undocumented immigrants, whether in prison or not, have a strong incentive to conceal their immigration status. Despite assurances that their answers won’t be shared with law enforcement, inmates know that disclosing their undocumented status could increase their likelihood of deportation. This leads to further underreporting in the data.

The data offers a clearer link between illegal immigration and crime. Just last year, even the Biden administration admitted that 9% of “non-detained” illegal immigrants — 662,566 out of 7.4 million released into the U.S. — had criminal records. What is even more alarming is that these people were primarily those who surrendered at the border, the ones supposedly least likely to pose a threat. These numbers don’t even include the 2 million known “gotaways” who crossed the border during the Biden administration without being apprehended, nor the unknown millions who evaded detection entirely. That 9% figure assumes the administration didn’t undercount criminal records, which is questionable, mainly because countries like Venezuela often refuse to share background information on their citizens.

It is hard to ignore the unprecedented percentage increase in violent crime during the Biden administration, as illegal immigrants flooded into the country. It’s also hard to ignore the fact that the U.S. homicide rate is on track for its lowest reading on record as deportations rise.

 

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Meanwhile, the Cato Institute assumes that anyone receiving federal benefits — such as welfare, health care or Social Security — is in the U.S. legally and that program fraud doesn’t occur. Yet a 2024 audit by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that California improperly claimed $52.7 million in federal Medicaid reimbursements for illegal aliens. Illegal immigrants have fraudulently accessed a variety of programs, including Social Security and public housing.

The American Community Survey adds another layer of bias. Because the survey is voluntary, undocumented immigrants, whether in prison or not, have a strong incentive to conceal their immigration status. Despite assurances that their answers won’t be shared with law enforcement, inmates know that disclosing their undocumented status could increase their likelihood of deportation. This leads to further underreporting in the data.

The data offers a clearer link between illegal immigration and crime. Just last year, even the Biden administration admitted that 9% of “non-detained” illegal immigrants — 662,566 out of 7.4 million released into the U.S. — had criminal records. What is even more alarming is that these people were primarily those who surrendered at the border, the ones supposedly least likely to pose a threat. These numbers don’t even include the 2 million known “gotaways” who crossed the border during the Biden administration without being apprehended, nor the unknown millions who evaded detection entirely. That 9% figure assumes the administration didn’t undercount criminal records, which is questionable, mainly because countries like Venezuela often refuse to share background information on their citizens.

It is hard to ignore the unprecedented percentage increase in violent crime during the Biden administration, as illegal immigrants flooded into the country. It’s also hard to ignore the fact that the U.S. homicide rate is on track for its lowest reading on record as deportations rise.

Pretty funny, heavily right partisan site attacking another heavily right partisan site, cat fight, don’t need any further proof that Trumpism is it’s own ideology

 

[Truth Detector]

Pretty funny, heavily right partisan site attacking another heavily right partisan site, cat fight, don’t need any further proof that Trumpism is it’s own ideology

Translation: arsecheese is too stupid to comprehend the article or come up with a coherent response he may disagree with.

Summary of any of arsecheese's posts:

 

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Translation: arsecheese is too stupid to comprehend the article or come up with a coherent response he may disagree with.

Summary of any of arsecheese's posts:

Didn’t we already just see that same GIF on another of your nonresponse responses? Ain’t much in the originality I see

Why would I, or anyone, read an opinion piece in the Examiner attacking the Cato Institute? Cat fights never interested me

 

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Didn’t we already just see that same GIF on another of your nonresponse responses? Ain’t much in the originality I see

If the dunce cap fits, wear it you whiny brainless little dotard.

Why would I, or anyone, read an opinion piece in the Examiner attacking the Cato Institute? Cat fights never interested me

Translation: why would morons like arsecheese read anything containing facts and coherent arguments.

Carry on whiny little man.

 

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If the dunce cap fits, wear it you whiny brainless little dotard.



Translation: why would morons like arsecheese read anything containing facts and coherent arguments.

Carry on whiny little man.

That’s pretty funny, you seldom if ever post “facts” and never “coherent” anything, always the same recycled personal insults, and as we see here, the same lame GIFs

 

[Truth Detector]

That’s pretty funny, you seldom if ever post “facts” and never “coherent” anything,

You're projecting again whiny brainless little man.

Projection

The process of displacing one’s feelings onto a different person, animal, or object. The term is most commonly used to describe defensive projection—attributing one’s own unacceptable urges to another.

always the same recycled personal insults, and as we see here, the same lame GIFs

Says the whiny brainless little douchebag who does nothing but lie, cry and hurl lame insults.

Projection

The process of displacing one’s feelings onto a different person, animal, or object. The term is most commonly used to describe defensive projection—attributing one’s own unacceptable urges to another.