Immigrants and Criminality

The Libertarian literature is intense in their analysis of immigration. Their emphasis is upon crime--because the esteemed President gives people terrific straw men to bind and burn. The stats are pretty obvious, and obviously flawed. For example, are illegal immigrants--essentially criminals inherently--fairly compared to their legal relatives who are not criminals? With the errors inherent in these evaluations, here are the statistics that can only be generalities.

American Community Survey used data from the U.S. Census Bureau to analyze incarcerated immigrants according to their citizenship and legal status for 2016. The data show that all immigrants—legal and illegal—are less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans relative to their shares of the population. By themselves, illegal immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans.
From 2009 to February 2017, only about half of ICE’s removals were of people who had committed any crime at all. Even of those who committed a crime, the most serious offense for 60 percent of them was a victimless crime—most commonly an immigration offense, traffic infraction, or vice crimes like illicit drugs.
ICE data published in response to a Freedom of Information Act request is now available online. The data breaks down all ICE removals from 2009 to February 2017 by the most serious criminal conviction committed by the immigrant. The criminal categories are broad, but the general trend is clear: ICE primarily removed criminals who committed crimes without a private victim (i.e. not the government or “society”). Just 12 percent committed violent crimes—and just 0.6 percent were convicted of murder. In addition, 47.7 percent of those ICE removed had no criminal conviction at all.
Of course, if the illegal had never come to the U.S., none of them would have committed a crime.

Behind this argument is the Libertarian belief that borders are arbitrary and unjust. That, regardless of the statistics, is another very different question regardless of how ill-informed the President is.