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Here's How Wrong Trump Is: Immigrants Commit <i>Less</i> Crime

There are many people who will think that while Trump's comments may be offensive, they're also accurate -- just politically incorrect. But no, they're not politically incorrect. They're factually incorrect.
Spencer Critchley
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Managing Partner of Boots Road Group, a marketing firm for people making the world a better place

Managing Partner of Boots Road Group, a marketing firm for people making the world a better place
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FILE - This June 16, 2015 file photo shows developer Donald Trump as he delivers remarks during his announcement that he will be a Republican candidate for president, in New York. Univision is dropping the Miss USA pageant and says it will cut all business ties with Donald Trump in a spiraling controversy over comments the Republican presidential hopeful made recently about Mexican immigrants. The company said Thursday, June 25, it would pull the plug on its Spanish-language coverage of the pageant on July 12 by its UniMas network. It also has severed its business relationship with the Miss Universe Organization, which produces the Miss USA pageant, due to what it called "insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants" by Trump, a part owner of the organization. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE - This June 16, 2015 file photo shows developer Donald Trump as he delivers remarks during his announcement that he will be a Republican candidate for president, in New York. Univision is dropping the Miss USA pageant and says it will cut all business ties with Donald Trump in a spiraling controversy over comments the Republican presidential hopeful made recently about Mexican immigrants. The company said Thursday, June 25, it would pull the plug on its Spanish-language coverage of the pageant on July 12 by its UniMas network. It also has severed its business relationship with the Miss Universe Organization, which produces the Miss USA pageant, due to what it called "insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants" by Trump, a part owner of the organization. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Everyone knows Donald Trump's comments about criminal Mexican immigrants are offensive -- even Donald Trump, who's deliberately using outrage to get attention he can't earn with substance, while also exploiting the GOP's venerable Southern Strategy.

But there are many people who will think that while Trump's comments may be offensive, they're also accurate -- just politically incorrect.

But no, they're not politically incorrect. They're factually incorrect.

Because the facts say that recent immigrants to the United States, legal or not, commit less crime than do native-born Americans.

Multiple studies show it. For example, this one by Justice Quarterly, cited by the Pew Research Center.

As Justice Quarterly's graph shows, the crime rate for first-generation immigrants is well below that for the native born. And then this happens: the rate for second-generation immigrants is nearly the same as for natives.

One likely interpretation: they catch up!

Maybe we should worry less about protecting Americans from immigrants, and a little more about protecting immigrants from Americans.

Or, at least, Americans like Donald Trump.

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