One of the most common arguments used by defenders of the Biden administration’s open border policies is the claim that “illegal immigrants are more law-abiding than native-born Americans.” This argument is designed to sound compassionate and rational—but it collapses under real scrutiny. When you peel back the surface, this talking point is not based on sound data, but rather on manipulated statistics, missing information, and political agendas—particularly among progressive academics and media outlets.
Let’s unpack the key problems behind this narrative and expose why it’s misleading—and even dangerous.
The Statistics Are Skewed by Underreporting and Data Suppression
When you hear that illegal immigrants commit “fewer crimes” than U.S. citizens, it’s important to ask a basic question: How do we know their immigration status in the first place? The short answer is—we often don’t.
Many liberal cities and counties have declared themselves “sanctuary jurisdictions.” In these areas, police officers are forbidden from asking about immigration status, even when someone is arrested. If immigration status isn’t reported, then there’s no way to track how many crimes are committed by illegal aliens. This means the databases used in studies are missing critical information.
As a result, researchers who claim to show that illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes are often working with incomplete or censored data. The truth may be much worse than what the statistics appear to show.
In plain terms: If you blindfold the referee and then say no fouls were committed, you’re not proving that the players are cleaner—you’re proving you didn’t want to see the truth.
They Use Total Numbers Instead of Per Capita Rates
Here’s another common trick: progressives will compare the total number of crimes committed by illegal immigrants to the total number of crimes committed by native-born citizens. But this ignores one crucial fact—illegal immigrants are a much smaller part of the population.
Estimates say there are between 11 and 15 million illegal aliens living in the U.S. That’s only about 3–5% of the total population. So if illegal immigrants commit, say, 7% of the nation’s crimes, then their crime rate is actually higher per person than that of the general public.
Using total numbers instead of crime rates is a deceptive way to make it look like illegal immigrants are more peaceful than they are. In reality, per capita comparisons show that they commit more crime relative to their numbers.
Think of it like this: If you have a class of 5 students and 2 of them cheat on a test, that’s a 40% cheating rate. But if 2 students in a class of 100 cheat, that’s only 2%. Total number is the same—but one group is far more dangerous, proportionally.
Crimes in the U.S. Aren’t the Whole Story: What About Their Past?
When an illegal immigrant crosses the border, we have no reliable way to know their past criminal record from their home country. Many nations don’t share full criminal databases with the U.S., and even when they do, documents can be faked, names changed, and identities covered up.
So when progressives say illegal aliens are “law-abiding,” they’re only talking about their behavior after they arrive here. But what about:
- Gang activity in Central America?
- Human trafficking in Mexico?
- Drug smuggling in South America or Asia?
Many of these individuals may have long histories of crime before setting foot on American soil. And yet once they arrive, they’re treated as if they have a clean slate—often receiving public benefits and avoiding consequences because of political sanctuary policies.
It’s like hiring a stranger with no resume to babysit your children—and just assuming they must be trustworthy because they haven’t hurt your kids yet.
Crimes Unique to Illegal Immigrants Are Ignored
By definition, every illegal immigrant has already committed at least one federal crime—that of entering or remaining in the country without authorization (8 U.S. Code § 1325). But that’s just the start. Many also commit:
- Identity theft (using false Social Security numbers to work)
- Document fraud (fake IDs, licenses, and passports)
- Tax evasion (working under the table or with false identities)
- Illegal employment (working without authorization)
These crimes are often not included in studies about crime rates, because progressive researchers either ignore them or consider them “non-violent” or “technical.” But they are still crimes, and they are often committed repeatedly and deliberately.
If an American citizen did these things, they’d be prosecuted. But for illegal immigrants, these crimes are often overlooked or excused in the name of political correctness.
Academia and Media: The Progressive Gatekeepers of “Truth”
Much of the false narrative about illegal immigrant crime comes from universities, think tanks, and newsrooms that are dominated by progressive ideologues. These institutions gatekeep research, fund only “acceptable” studies, and punish dissent.
If a professor or researcher were to publish a study showing that illegal immigration increases violent crime, they risk professional ruin, accusations of racism, and censorship. As a result, most studies on immigration and crime are carefully worded, politically filtered, and designed to produce a certain outcome.
You can see the same pattern in the media:
- News outlets use terms like “undocumented” instead of “illegal.”
- Crimes committed by illegal aliens are downplayed or left out entirely.
- High-profile tragedies like the murders of Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray, the Bologna family, Jamiel Shaw II, Casey Chadwick, Debrina Kawam, and Kate Steinle are treated as unfortunate “isolated incidents,” while rare crimes by citizens are used to support sweeping gun control.
This is not honest reporting—it’s agenda-driven narrative shaping.
Victims Are Forgotten in the Rush to Defend Open Borders
Every crime committed by an illegal alien is a crime that should never have happened. That’s because the person never had the legal right to be here in the first place.
When an American citizen is raped, robbed, or killed by someone who snuck into the country illegally, the progressive response is often: “Well, Americans commit crimes too.” That is not justice. That is insanity.
We must never forget:
- The victims of drunk driving by illegal aliens.
- The victims of unlicensed and uninsured drivers
- The victims of gang violence in border towns.
- The families who lost loved ones to preventable crimes—because our government refused to enforce the law.
What Do the Numbers Say? A Look at Real Data
Let’s try to quantify the issue. Here’s what independent state-level studies have found:
- The Texas Department of Public Safety—which does track immigration status—has consistently reported that illegal aliens are arrested for thousands of felonies every year, including homicide, sexual assault, and drug trafficking.
- A 2018 report found that illegal aliens in Texas committed more crimes per capita than legal immigrants.
- The GAO (Government Accountability Office) also released studies showing that criminal aliens (legal and illegal) in federal custody average multiple arrests per person and are frequently repeat offenders.
Are there peaceful immigrants? Of course. Are some illegal aliens just looking for work? Probably. But when you open the floodgates and ignore the law, you do not get a peaceful society—you get chaos.
Conclusion: Reality Must Trump Narrative
The idea that illegal immigrants are “more law-abiding than Americans” is a political myth. It’s manufactured in academia, sanitized in media, and parroted by politicians who see illegal aliens as future voters, not as a public safety risk.
We need to face the facts:
- Many illegal immigrants commit crimes at higher rates per capita than U.S. citizens.
- The data is heavily manipulated, censored, or ignored by progressive gatekeepers.
- The victims of these crimes are real people—Americans who are forgotten by those who put ideology above law and order.
If our nation is to survive, we must return to truth, borders, and accountability. A country that does not defend its own laws cannot protect its own people.
S.D.G.,
Robert Sparkman
rob@christiannewsjunkie.com
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