SAN DIEGO (AP) 鈥� Donald Trump has reached the greatest political heights while linking immigration to violent crime, but he鈥檚 hardly the first American politician to promote the unfounded narrative.
Historians go back to at least the 1850s when German and Irish immigrants were targeted as degenerate thieves. An undercurrent of popular belief that immigrants breed crime persisted through the 20th century and into the 21st.
But no one compares , who reached the pinnacle of power by and portraying the foreign-born as criminals. Yet the weight of evidence shows no support for claims that immigrants are more responsible for crime than native-born Americans.
鈥淎s with most things Trump, he鈥檚 kind of one-of-a-kind in the loudness and brashness of the views, but he鈥檚 also not conjuring out of no history at all,鈥� said Carl Bon Tempo, an immigration historian and associate professor at University at Albany. 鈥淭his is not coming from nowhere.鈥�
Here is a look at the issue and what studies have shown the Republican presidential nomination for a third time this week in Milwaukee.
FROM THE 19TH CENTURY TO THE 21ST
Historians trace the narrative to at least the 1850s with the populist Know Nothing movement, also known as the American Party. (Members were required to say 鈥淚 know nothing鈥� when asked about the party.) The Knights of Labor reached its peak influence in the 1880s by associating immigrants with crime as part of an agenda for workers鈥� rights.
Fear of crime helped produce laws in the 1880s against Chinese immigration and in the 1920s that sharply limited new arrivals outside of Western Europe for four decades.
The high-level Dillingham Commission produced a 41-volume report in 1911 that found the government wasn't doing enough to keep out criminal immigrants, reflecting views that other countries were sending America their worst. The Wickersham Commission, in another widely anticipated government report in 1931, noted the theory that immigration fuels crime is "almost as old as the colonies planted by Englishmen on the New England coast.鈥�
Albert Johnson, a Republican newspaper editor who represented a Washington state congressional district, authored a 1924 law that severely restricted arrivals from outside Western Europe amid deep public anxiety about immigration. Coleman Livingston Blease, a Democratic governor and U.S. senator from 麻豆传媒AV Carolina who advocated lynching Blacks, spearheaded a law that made illegal entry a misdemeanor crime in 1929.
Crime has been an underlying fear even as politicians raised other objections to immigration. In the 1990s, Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan spoke of an 鈥渋llegal invasion鈥� and focused on cultural issues. California Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, dwelled on the idea that American citizens were being robbed of social services when he campaigned for to prohibit education and health care for people in the county illegally, which was approved by voters but largely thrown out in court.
Tom Tancredo led efforts against illegal immigration as a Republican congressman from Colorado in the 2000s, highlighting that federal prisons housed many who entered the country illegally. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e coming here to kill you, and you, and me, and my grandchildren,鈥� he said at a 2005 rally in New Hampshire.
TRUMP IS 鈥極NE-OF-A-KIND鈥�
Then there is Trump, who launched his presidential bid in 2015 by saying Mexico is 鈥渟ending people that have lots of problems, and they鈥檙e bringing those problems with us. They鈥檙e bringing drugs. They鈥檙e bringing crime. They鈥檙e rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.鈥�
Trump elevated the profile of MS-13, a criminal gang with roots among Salvadoran immigrants, and of 鈥渁ngel families鈥� whose loved ones were killed by people in the country illegally. 鈥淔or years, their pain was met with silence; their plight was met with indifference,鈥� he told a group of victims' families at the White House in 2018.
Trump rarely misses an opportunity to connect immigrants to crime, saying without any evidence at last month's presidential debate that 鈥渕illions鈥� from prisons, jails and mental health institutions entered the country under Joe Biden's watch.
was estimated to be 46.2 million, or almost 14% of the U.S. total, in 2022, according to the Census Bureau, including about 11 million in the country illegally. Hardly a month passes without at least one in the country illegally getting charged with a high-profile, horrific crime, such as the February slaying of a or the strangling death of a 1 in June.
Trump and his allies describe violent crimes committed by people in the country illegally as preventable acts, especially when an assailant had previous encounters with police in the United States.
A poll in March from shows the share of Americans who say that there鈥檚 a major risk that legal immigrants will commit crimes in the U.S. has increased to 32% from 19% in 2017.
STUDIES SHOW NO LINK BETWEEN IMMIGRATION AND CRIME
Peer-reviewed academic studies have generally found no link between immigration and violent crime, though conclusions vary based on the data examined.
The perception that immigration breeds crime 鈥渃ontinues to falter under the weight of the evidence,鈥� according to a review of academic literature last year in the . 鈥淲ith few exceptions, studies conducted at both the aggregate and individual levels demonstrate that high concentrations of immigrants are not associated with increased levels of crime and delinquency across neighborhoods and cities in the United States.鈥�
Another review of academic studies from 1994 to 2014 in the same journal found that the most common conclusion was 鈥渁 null or nonsignificant association between immigration and crime.鈥� Studies that established a link tended to say that immigration leads to less crime, not more.
Texas is the only state to track crimes by immigration status. A study published by the , based on Texas Department of Public Safety data from 2012 to 2018, found people in the country illegally had 鈥渟ubstantially lower crime rates than native-born citizens and legal immigrants across a range of felony offenses.鈥�
鈥淭here's a lot of research on immigration and crime, there's far less on undocumented immigration and crime,鈥� said Michael Light, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and co-author of the study on Texas data.
Elliot Spagat, The Associated Press
