Thread --> President Trump's press event with the Angel Families was shameless political showmanship intended to show the world that illegal immigrants are a serious criminal threat. However, all the evidence we have shows that illegal immigrants are less crime-prone than natives
Our first point comes from Texas, which tracks criminal convictions/arrests by legal status. As a percentage of their respective populations, there were 56 percent fewer criminal convictions of illegal immigrants than of native-born Americans in 2015. cato.org/publications/i… 
We also separated it out by crime. In 2015, homicide conviction rates for illegal and legal immigrants were 25 percent and 87 percent below those of natives, respectively. This is also as a percent of their respective populations.
A lot of people are going to say: "you're just using estimates of the illegal immigrant population. Those are way low LOL!" If so, then I am OVERESTIMATING their conviction rates. Nativists, choose your myth carefully. cato.org/blog/immigrati…
Nationwide, we estimate the illegal immigrant incarceration rate using the residual method. What's that? It's the same method used to discover EVERY OTHER STATISTICS ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. Their incarceration rates are 47% below that of natives. cato.org/publications/i…
And before anyone of you twitterers are like "why didn't you control for race or region of birth? GOtCHA LIBRUL!" - I included those numbers in the paper too. cato.org/publications/i…
On top of all this, USCIS last week released a report (accidentally, I assume) that shows DACA recipients are less likely to be arrested than non-DACA residents. How much less? About 2.7 times less. cato.org/blog/uscis-rep…
And this is on top of virtually all peer-reviewed literature that finds that immigrants are less crime prone than natives, no matter how you measure it, for the last century. cato.org/blog/immigrati…
Don't believe the evidence? That's fine. Just ask @MarkSKrikorian who said, "A lot of data does suggest immigrants are less likely to be involved in crime.” dallasnews.com/news/immigrati…
By all means, let's punish ALL people who commit murder or other REAL crimes where there is an actual victim. But let's not make up numbers or spread rumors.
As a final point, I chose the worst possible year for illegal immigrant homicide convictions in Texas for my Cato brief. Other years, like 2016, are much lower. Rate per 100,000 cato.org/blog/criminal-…
