Here Aren’t the Facts

More Misinformation from the Media:

“Trump is wrong to use a young woman’s tragic death to criticize sanctuary-city policies. New immigrants, including illegal immigrants, are less likely to commit a violent or property crimes than U.S. citizens, and there’s little evidence that crime rates are higher in sanctuary cities than in non-sanctuary cities. . . .

“Trump seized another political opportunity in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris by declaring that he’d put a halt to all Muslim immigration ‘until we figure out what’s going on.’

“Refugees in general, and Syrian refugees in particular, already among the most intensely scrutinized immigrants to enter the U.S. . . . [T]he fact is that terrorist attacks in the U.S. by and large have been carried out not by refugees but by people here on student visas or naturalized American citizens.

“[We are] a country that relies on immigrants to maintain a vibrant, dynamic economy, and a healthy voting populace that can act as a bulwark against the rise of authoritarian strong men. . . .” – Donald Trump Is Wrong on Immigration . . . Here Are the Facts, reason.com, Zach Weissemueller, 3/6/16

Fact Check: It is common in the media to claim that illegal aliens commit less violent crimes than citizens. But after extensive research on the issue, columnist Ann Coulter maintains that the issue is not clear cut. Good overall statistics aren’t readily available, she speculates, because the media and other powers-that-be fear what they might reveal. She affirms, however, that evidence from a number of sources suggests that violent crime by illegal aliens is a significant problem.

In any case, all illegal immigrants are lawbreakers, and their crimes are not victimless. They take jobs and public funding that properly belong to American citizens. They use fake identification, sometimes stolen from citizens, and they practice tax evasion and fraud.

Crime rates in cities are the result of many complex factors, only one of which is the presence of illegal aliens. Therefore, comparing crime rates between sanctuary and non-sanctuary cities does not prove anything definitive about illegal alien crime. The problem with sanctuary cities is that they refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and thereby impede the deportation of identified illegal alien criminals. Can anyone deny that this practice makes our streets less safe?  

The author may think that Syrian refugees are adequately “scrutinized,” but one who disagrees is FBI Director James Comey. He testified before Congress that warfare in Syria has destroyed the data bases needed to do background checks on people. Thus it is impossible to have adequate vetting of refugees. Whether terrorists are refugees or some other category of immigrant is secondary to the fact that many are Muslim. This is the point Trump is making.

And just why do we need endless mass immigration “to maintain a vibrant, dynamic economy?” The economy we had in 1965, when mass immigration began, was more vibrant and dynamic than the one we have today with its shrinking middle class and stagnant wage levels.

As for immigration protecting us from oppressive government, it’s hard to imagine a more preposterous view. Most immigrants today come from Third World countries with authoritarian traditions, and often they bring those views with them. To illustrate, Hispanics comprise the largest ethnic and cultural bloc of immigrants. They strongly favor “Big Government” which can tend toward authoritarianism and restrict freedom. Furthermore, the multiculturalism promoted by mass immigration weakens national unity and increases the likelihood that power seekers will use the fractured state of our society as an excuse to step in and impose their rule.

The reason.com article claims to offer the facts. What it actually delivers is mainly half-truths and pure falsehoods.                   

 

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