Journalist Jorge Ramos
President Trump has
made up three tall tales to criminalize, criticize and reject immigrants in the
United States. These stories are full of lies, but he’s repeated them so often
that many Americans have started to believe them.
So let’s refute all three, one
by one.
1. Undocumented
immigrants are criminals.
This is Trump’s core story.
When he launched his presidential bid in June 2015, he famously said that
undocumented immigrants from Mexico are “bringing drugs; they’re bringing
crime; they’re rapists.” And during his first speech before Congress
recently, he again likened immigrants to “gang members, drug dealers and
criminals.”
Here’s the truth about
undocumented immigrants in the U.S.: A huge majority, 97% in fact, are good
people. That number comes from a Migration Policy Institute study, which found
that less than 3% of undocumented immigrants have committed a felony. It also
found that American-born residents are twice as likely to commit a felony as
immigrants are.
Crime statistics also
demonstrate a correlation between having more undocumented immigrants and lower
crime rates at the national level. Between 1990 and 2013, the number of
undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. tripled, from 3.5 million to 11.2
million. During that time, violent crime in America dropped by 48%, according
to data from the FBI. Despite these facts, Trump insists on vilifying
immigrants, and continues to push his “bad hombres” myth.
2. Immigrants
are costly for the United States.
Another lie — and one that’s
easy to refute by doing the math. Yes, it’s true that undocumented immigrants
benefit from some social services and that their children get free public
education all the way through high school. That costs money — but immigrants
also contribute by paying taxes and creating jobs. The greatest irony is that
undocumented workers also contribute part of their earnings to Social Security
and Medicare, services from which they will never benefit.
In fact, immigrants contribute
more than $2 billion to the economy every year, and produced some $54 billion
dollars in net gain from 1994 through 2013, according to a study by the
National Academy of Sciences. Trump blames immigrants for being a burden on the
country, but they give back much more than they take.
