Murdoch Distorts Trump’s Statement

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who is considered a conservative kingmaker as the man behind Fox News, thinks Donald Trump is “wrong” about immigrants. [He wrote on Twitter]: “Mexican immigrants, as with all immigrants, have low crime rates than [the] native-born.” – cnn.com by Mario Castillo and Brian Stelter 7/13/15

Fact Check: Other media outlets have picked up Murdoch’s statement. Although Fox News, which Murdoch owns, has allowed some restrictionist commentary on immigration, Murdoch himself has always appeared to favor mass immigration, while not objecting to lax border control. Like many of his fellow plutocrats, Murdoch inclines toward globalism, the view that minimizes the importance of nations and national sovereignty. He once stated that “we are in the midst of a phase of history in which nations will be redefined and their futures fundamentally altered.”

Donald Trump is a very wealthy man who seems to be cut from a different cloth, one who expresses concern for his country, its national interests, and his fellow citizens. Recently he expressed concern that illegal immigration from Mexico was causing us problems, and that some illegal aliens commit crimes such as rape.

In response, elites in the media and business staged a collective tantrum against Trump for daring to suggest that illegal aliens are anything less than an unmitigated blessing to American society. Murdoch’s Twitter comment was part of this pile-on. So far, Trump has stuck to his guns and refused to apologize.

Murdoch’s claim distorts what Trump said. By using the word “immigrants” he is lumping legal immigrants and illegal immigrants together, when Trump was referring only to illegals. There is a general consensus among researchers, though not conclusively proven, that legal immigrants have a lower crime rate than natives. If this is true, it would not be surprising, given that our immigration system is supposed to screen out people with criminal histories.

Conversely, with illegal immigration, there is no screening. We are simply taking in all who successfully evade our laws. Thus in a very literal sense they are all lawbreakers, and their lawlessness doesn’t stop with simply breaking immigration laws. To remain and prosper in the U.S., they commonly commit other crimes, including document fraud and tax evasion.

Now, the question arises, are illegal aliens more likely than natives to commit violent crimes against persons and property? Unfortunately, as columnist Ann Coulter noted, the government does not have clear comprehensive data to answer yes or no. It may be, as she suggests, that the government really doesn’t want people to know. And neither do the media, as they promote the stereotype of the peaceful hard-working illegal alien.

Nevertheless, bits and pieces of information come out that point to a high rate of serious crimes among illegal aliens. Among examples were data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission for FY 2014. They revealed that of 74,911 federal sentencing cases, illegal aliens (who are 3.5 percent of the population) accounted for 36.7 percent of convictions. That included 20 percent of kidnapping/hostage cases, 12.3 percent of money laundering cases, and 12 percent of murder cases. Data from two programs involving localities and states assisting federal (287(g) and Secure Communities also indicates a disproportionate level of illegal alien crime.

As for rape committed by Mexican illegals, which Trump mentioned, evidence suggests this is a problem to some degree. As Ann Coulter notes in her book, Adios America, Mexico has a culture which Americans would describe as sexually abusive. Accordingly, illegal aliens from Mexico are likely to bring this cultural disposition with them. As for data, again it’s sketchy, but U.S. authorities report significant deportations of sex offenders back to Mexico in recent years.

But the discussion of whether natives or illegal aliens have higher crime rates overlooks one crucial point. Any crimes committed by illegal aliens in this country are too many because they shouldn’t be here in the first place.

 

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