The truth about crime, illegal immigrants and sanctuary cities

There has been much rhetoric from the left and the open-borders, pro-illegal immigration lobby suggesting that illegal immigrants pose no threat to the safety and security of this nation and commit less crimes than their American Citizen and legal immigrant counterparts.

If one watches the network newscasts, the ideologues and open-borders surrogates consistently accuse Americans and law enforcement experts who suggest otherwise of being racist and anti-immigration xenophobes. If you pay attention to the rhetoric, you will find one blaring item missing — facts.

I am a former Spanish speaking career detective who investigated violent crimes within the Hispanic and other ethnic immigrant communities. 

I am also a forensic criminologist who is a subject matter expert in violent crime who advocates for facts and evidence. Here are some verified crime facts and statistics with you so that you will know the truth about the precarious relationship between violent crime and illegal immigrants.

{mosads}As Americans, we should only care about three things: (1) are the immigrants in the U.S. illegally; (2) have they committed violent crimes predominantly against U.S. citizens; and (3) had these criminals not been in our country illegally, these crimes, the victimization of our citizens and the costs of their crimes borne by American taxpayers could have been completely avoided.

Previous administrations have deliberately kept Americans in the dark about illegal immigrant crimes

Most states and our federal government have kept information and statistics about illegal immigration, crimes committed by illegals and the costs borne by you the U.S. payer out of public view. It is in fact difficult, but not impossible to locate accurate crime statistics involving illegal immigrants. The statistics are buried both to suit a political agenda and to avoid public outcry. Once you read this article, you will quickly understand why.

The Pew Research Institute estimates that as of 2014, there are at least 11.2 million illegal immigrants residing in the U.S. This population comprises approximately 3.5 percent of our country’s population.

Of these, by far the largest ethnic population, 52 percent are Hispanics comprised of Mexicans, Central Americans and Cubans.

Six states: California, Texas, Illinois, Florida, New York and New Jersey account for 59 percent of all illegal immigrants residing in the U.S. The fact that 66 percent of all illegal immigrants have lived in our nation for over ten years underscores our long-standing inability to address the serious problem of our inability to control our nation’s borders.

The relationship between illegal immigrants and violent crime

Research conducted by the federal government oversight organization Judicial Watch in 2014 documents that 50 percent of all federal crimes were committed near our border with Mexico. 

Of the 61,529 criminal cases filed by federal prosecutors; 40 percent or 24,746 were in court districts along the southern borders of California, Arizona and Texas. 

The Western District of Texas had the nation’s most significant crime rate with over 6,300 cases filed; followed by the Southern District of Texas with slightly over 6,000 cases. 

The Southern California District with nearly 4,900 cases; New Mexico with nearly 4,000 cases and Arizona with over 3,500 criminal cases ranked 3rd, 4th and 5th.

The U.S. Department of Justice documents that in 2014, 19 percent or over 12,000 criminal cases filed by prosecutors were for violent crimes; and over 22 percent or 13,300 cases were for drug related felonies. 

That same year, the U.S. Sentencing Commission found that 75 percent of all criminal defendants who were convicted and sentenced for federal drug offenses were illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants were also involved in 17 percent of all drug trafficking sentences and one third of all federal prison sentences.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Sentencing Commission reported that as of 2014, illegal immigrants were convicted and sentenced for over 13 percent of all crimes committed in the U.S. 

According to the FBI, 67,642 murders were committed in the U.S. from 2005 through 2008, and 115,717 from 2003 through 2009. The General Accounting Office documents that criminal immigrants committed 25,064 of these murders. 

Illegal immigrants clearly commit a level of violent and drug related crimes disproportionate to their population.

In California alone, over 2,400 illegal immigrants out of a total prison population of 130,000 are imprisoned in the state’s prison system for the crime of homicide. 

The misrepresentation of comparisons in who commits crimes between illegal immigrants, legal U.S. immigrants and American citizens

The pro-illegal immigrant lobby consistently misrepresents the criminal involvement of illegal immigrants as compared to immigrants who legally enter the U.S. and American citizens, saying that illegal immigrants commit less crimes than their counterparts. This assertion is false in most cases. Here are the vetted statistics:

In California, there are just over 92 illegal immigrants imprisoned for every 100,000 illegals as compared to 74 citizens and legal non-citizen immigrants. In Arizona, the rate is nearly 69 illegals imprisoned for every 100,000, as compared to 54 citizens and legal non-citizen immigrants.

In New York, over three times as many illegal immigrants or 169, are imprisoned for crimes per 100,000, as compared to only 48 citizens and legal non-citizen immigrants. Only the states of Texas and Florida do illegal immigrants commit less crimes than their legal immigrant counterparts (Texas with 54.5 illegals imprisoned per 100,000, compared to 65 legal immigrants and Florida with 55 illegals imprisoned, compared to 68 legal immigrants).

Texas is an epicenter for illegal immigrant crimes

Recent crime analysis by both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Texas law enforcement authorities indicate that between June 2011 and March 2017, over 217,000 criminal immigrants were arrested and booked into Texas jails. 

In researching the criminal careers of these defendants, it was revealed that they had jointly committed over nearly 600,000 criminal offenses. Their arrests included nearly 1,200 homicides; almost 69,000 assaults; 16,854 burglaries; 700 kidnappings; nearly 6,200 sexual assaults; 69,000 drug offenses; 8,700 weapons violations; over 3,800 robberies and over 45,000 obstructing police charges. In determining the status of these offenders in the U.S., it was confirmed by DHS that over 173,000 or 66 percent of these immigrant criminal defendants were in our country illegally at the times of their arrests.

“Sanctuary State” California politicians fight against deporting criminal illegal immigrants

Currently, a fight is brewing between California Open Borders politicians and the state’s Democratic controlled Legislature and the Department of Justice regarding the protection of violent criminal illegal immigrants. 

Hardly any Californian’s know that in 2014, Gov. Brown signed a bill that amended a state statute amending the maximum sentencing for misdemeanor crimes by one day from 365 to 364 days in jail. This was deliberately done to avoid current federal laws that provide for the deportation of illegal and legal immigrants in this country who have received sentences of 365 days or more. 

With the newly enacted jail and prison diversion programs of Propositions 109 and 47, Gov. Brown and company are effectively preventing the federal government from removing violent and recidivist illegal immigrants from our midst through the deportation process.

The extreme costs of keeping illegal immigrant criminals in this country

According to research and statistics by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, U.S. taxpayers are footing an annual bill of nearly $19 million a day to house and care for an estimated 300,000 to 450,000 convicted criminal immigrants who are eligible for deportation and are currently residing in local jails and state and federal prisons across the country. 

These figures include not only those immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally, but all immigrants here who commit and have been convicted of crimes. Other accounting estimates indicate that the total cost for all corrections, medical and support services for adults and juvenile immigrant criminals nationally to be over $1.8 billion dollars.

So the next time you hear some Open Borders politician or pro illegal immigrant surrogates advocate on their behalf, ask yourself why we as American citizens need to bear the increasing costs of violence, victimization and burdensome taxes in subsidizing illegal immigrant criminals who shouldn’t be in our country in the first place.

Ron Martinelli is a nationally renowned forensic criminologist and law enforcement expert. Martinelli is a retired San Jose (CA) police detective who provides forensic investigation and expert services to numerous states, large municipalities and national private law firms specializing in civil rights. He is fluent in Spanish and divides his time between California, Texas and Mexico.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.