Migrant Crime Rhetoric: "Relentless, Bad-faith Fearmongering"

On the latest episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the host addressed the myth of a rise in crime attributed to the recent influx of immigrants to the United States. With the US Presidential election headed down the homestretch to the November 5th general election, there have been wild claims about rising crime rates (which is unsubstantiated, according to figures recently released by the FBI), and increasing use of the toxic phrase "migrant crime," rhetoric designed to misinform and inflame voters.

In fact, claims of a "migrant crime wave" is not supported by data.

• The research does not support the view that immigrants commit crime or are incarcerated at higher rates than native-born Americans.
• One study found that undocumented immigrants are 33 percent less likely to be incarcerated than people born in the United States.
• Numerous studies show that immigration is not linked to higher levels of crime, but rather the opposite.
• Research examining crime rates in so-called sanctuary cities also found no discernable difference when compared to similarly situated cities without sanctuary policies. 

In New York, a sanctuary city that has received the most immigrants from Republican-run border states (since the spring of 2022 when Republican governors, including those in Arizona, Florida, and Texas, began transporting undocumented immigrants to cities with more immigrant-friendly policies, including Boston, Chicago, New York, and Washington), crime decreased in most major categories in 2023 compared to the year before, as confirmed by a January report from the New York City Police Department. This follows reductions in most crime categories in the city in 2022. New York City remains one of the safest big cities in the country despite sensational claims that it is being overwhelmed by crime.

“It’s no accident that Republicans were focusing so hard on immigration,” Oliver noted. “Recent polling shows it’s the second most important issue among Americans. But a big reason for that is the relentless, bad-faith fearmongering around the issue by the Republican party themselves, perhaps best summed up by the startling growth this year of the toxic phrase ‘migrant crime’.”

Oliver was clear on the facts: “There is no migrant crime wave happening right now. In fact, there is no crime wave at all. Crime in general has been trending downward in recent years, including this one.” And he cited experts who found no evidence that there’s any link between a person’s immigration status and their involvement in crime. Texas, the one state that tracks crime tied to immigration status, found that the illegal immigrant criminal conviction rate was in fact 45% below that of native-born Americans.

“And yet despite that, there have been a wave of conservatives claiming there is a wave of migrant crime. And that is almost definitely going to be continuing until November,” said Oliver. “And because there is, again, no data to back up claims of a migrant crime wave, they’ve had to resort to anecdotes or exaggeration.” An attempt by Republicans to track such nonexistent data led to a website listing fentanyl overdose deaths – “tragic, but you cannot connect them to migrant crime”, said Oliver, given that when fentanyl has been seized at the border, 90% of the time it was seized during legal crossings, and 91% of those seizures were from US citizens.

“Migrant crime is not on the rise. That is a fact,” Oliver emphasized. “What is also a fact, though, is that people now feel as though it is. And that feeling has the potential to cause massive harm. And all of this is making the genuine issues around immigration,” such as the backlog in immigrations courts or providing cities help with sheltering and supporting people seeking asylum, “that much harder”.

You can watch the latest episode (season 11, episode 17) of "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver," with a Max subscription, or visit the "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" Youtube channel. New episodes usually air on Youtube a 3-4 days after the Sunday night airing.