Immigrants are more likely than U.S. citizens to report crimes in their communities and are less likely to be victimized, according to new research.
The data analysis, based on the National Crime Victimization Survey, correlates to research showing that immigrants commit fewer crimes on average than their U.S. citizen counterparts, said Cato Institute analysts David Bier and Julián Salazar in a new policy analysis.
Perpetrators tend to victimize people like themselves. White victims are most likely to have been victimized by a white perpetrator; Black victims by a Black perpetrator and Hispanic victims by a Hispanic perpetrator, the data show.
Decades of research have shown that that the average immigrant to the United States commits fewer crimes than the average U.S.-born American citizen, the researchers said. The new study of data from 2017 to 2023 confirms they are also less likely to be victims of crime.
Sanctuary cities keep immigration, law enforcement separate
The new research comes at a time of heightened immigration enforcement amid President Donald Trump’s nationwide crackdown, including on so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions.
Sanctuary communities often restrict local law enforcement from working directly with federal immigration agents, in hopes that immigrants – including those without permanent legal status – will feel safe enough to report crimes.
The Department of Homeland Security has countered that unauthorized immigrants are criminals by default, and the agency routinely publicizes arrests of “illegal criminal aliens” who have committed serious crimes in the country.
“Whether this changing climate will reduce immigrant crime reporting is too soon to say, but it unnecessarily jeopardizes it,” Bier and Salazar wrote in the paper.
Immigrants help bring offenders to justice
The National Crime Victimization Survey is a large-scale, household survey of 240,000 people over the age of 12 conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Since 2017, the surveyors have asked about citizenship status.
In the seven years through 2023, immigrants reported 5.1 million crimes to the police, according to the report. Immigrant victims’ cooperation with police led to about 457,000 total arrests.
Immigrants were nearly 45% less likely than the U.S.-born population to be victims of violent crimes.
“The fact that immigrants report crimes more frequently suggests that they provide an additional public safety benefit beyond merely committing fewer crimes: helping bring offenders to justice,” the analysts said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Immigrants less likely to be victimized, more likely to report crimes
