LA Times Spills the Truth About Illegal Immigration and Crime
An interesting statistic appeared in the LA Times concerning the incidence of illegal aliens being found in jails in the new Secure Communities program of ICE. "Nationwide, about 12% of all inmates checked were here illegally and had prior criminal convictions. Of those, about 6,700 had been convicted of violent crimes. Another roughly 60,000 had other criminal convictions." The significance of that statistic is that it demonstrates the disproportionate involvement of illegal and deportable aliens in crime. Of course, the share of inmates that are checked is not specified, or for that matter the story is unclear if only inmates fitting a certain profile are checked, but because illegal aliens constitute at most 4% of the population and represent 12% of inmates, they appear to be jailed about three times their share of the population.
By Jack Martin, Research Director.