[B]lanket slander is precisely what Donald Trump did in recent days by describing Mexican immigrants as ‘bringing crime’ to the U.S. . . . Are some immigrants criminals? Yes. It is false, though, that this element is a representative sample of immigrants. . . . But candidates who actually have a shot at winning the presidency should understand: Immigrant-bashing offends . . . Christians. The typical immigrant is not likely, statistically speaking, to be a rapist or murderer. But he or she is quite likely to be Bible-believing Christian. — Immigrant-Bashers Will Lose the Evangelical Vote, Russell Moore and Samuel Rodriguez, The Wall Street Journal 7/16/15
Fact Check: Moore is president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention and Rodriguez is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. They chastise Trump for suggesting that “immigrants” commit many crimes. Actually, Trump was referring in his comment to illegal aliens.
It seems that the two authors are conflating legal and illegal immigration. As we noted in a previous Fact Check, there is some evidence that legal immigrants have a lower crime rate than natives, specifically because it possible to do background checks on them. With illegal immigrants, all by definition are lawbreakers, and they typically break laws in addition to being here illegally, such as document fraud and tax evasion. Do they commit a significant number violent crimes—possibly at a higher rate than natives? It’s hard to prove conclusively, but some data definitely point this way.
Certainly Trump is raising a legitimate issue. Unfortunately, some people describe any criticism of illegal immigration or the actions of illegal aliens as “immigrant bashing.” If this is the way Moore and Rodriguez see things, they are quite mistaken about the convictions of most evangelical Christians. Polling shows that the great majority of them strongly oppose illegal immigration and want firm measures taken to stop it. Consequently, they tend to support candidates who support enforcement of our immigration laws.
As for the statement that most immigrants are “typically” Bible-believing Christians, it’s hard to see how this particularly applies to illegal aliens—people who regularly flout the biblical admonitions against false witness, theft, and disobedience to legitimate authority. Most legal immigrants are from Latin America and Asia. The Latin Americans tend to be nominal Catholics with a significant religious admixture of paganism and superstition. The Asians often don’t adhere any expression of Christianity. In neither group are people “typically” Bible-believing Christians, at least as that term is understood in the United States.
Moore and Rodriguez both support amnesty for illegal aliens and try to give the impression that this is the proper Christian position. Most rank and file evangelical Christians disagree.