Do "Illegal" Immigrants Increase Crime in their Cities? A Resounding No!

However, illegals that DO commit crimes should be punished.

Yes, just like citizens and "legal" residents. Equal protection under the law.

But that's exactly what happens. Sanctuary cities are simply a name for cities that don't try to deport immigrants for traffic infractions or who are arrested but never charged.

Sanctuary cities where people cannot be prosecuted for crimes is from the Bible. ;-)

I would guess that a lot of those figures come from very biased sources. Grain of salt.

re: #1-8

Presenting figures -- even if they're accurate -- of the cost of "illegal" immigrants proves absolutely nothing. Cost by itself is irrelevant. No one ever performs a "cost analysis" -- they perform a cost-benefit analysis.

For instance, suppose you're in the market for a new mode of transportation. The car costs $15,000 and the bike costs $500. By your standard, where you judge something's value entirely by its cost, you'd buy the bike -- after all, it's cheaper! But by my standard, we judge based on costs and benefits. I realize that the car provides far more benefits than the bike, such as being able to carry more people and more stuff, as well as being safer, even though it costs more money.

Likewise, I don't particularly care how much (gross) "illegal" immigrants cost the government. What's more relevant is the net cost/benefit, once the benefits of "illegal" immigration are taken into account.

Obviously, having more immigrants in the country means that there are more consumers to buy products here and to pay taxes. Also, they provide a supply of labor, helping lower production costs. (More on this in a second.

9. $200 Billion dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.

This is the most important claim, because it goes to the heart of America's economic system. In America, no one is guaranteed a job or a wage, period. That's some Soviet Union @!$%#. Here, you work if someone agrees to hire you and you get paid the wage upon which you and your employer agree.

Sometimes, in the free market, the supply of a good or the demand for a good changes. That's how the market works. And at those times, the price of that good changes. It just happens that the supply of labor has been increased by an influx of immigrants, thus lowering the price of labor. What this means is that unskilled laborers get paid less, but companies can lower their costs. This leads to lower prices for everyone and also prevents companies being undercut by imported goods from China.

There's no such thing as "suppressed wages" because there's no "correct" price for labor. Labor -- like any other good -- is worth what someone will pay for it. True, the price of labor (that is, wages) have gone down, but that's just how the market works.

It may sound nice to try to guarantee jobs at a certain wage to Americans. However, that's a steep, slippery slope into Communism. And I'm sure you don't want that.

10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US.

I'd like to see a real source for this. A quote from Lou Dobbs doesn't quite cut it, since one cannot examine that scaremongering, suspenders-wearing idiot's methodology or data.

I would guess that that crime rate includes the "crime" of illegal entry. Considering that this crime is victimless, it is dishonest to include it in crime statistics because it would cause people to fear unduly for the safety of their lives and property.

Besides, why does the crime rate for white non-illegal aliens matter? Are only white people "American-enough" to count? Is the black crime rate multiplied by 3/5, because to xenophobes like Lou Dobbs, black and brown people aren't worth as much as the Pure, White Aryan Master Race? Here in America, everyone who ascribes to American values is an American, regardless of the color of their skin or the papers they carry in their wallet.

11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border

Fine. More consumers. Maybe that's a way to solve some of this housing glut -- put "illegal" aliens in the houses.

also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries.

Do you mean Muslim countries? What is a "Terrorist Country," anyways?

Mr. Davis' link (to which I still have access) does not corroborate this claim. Without evidence, I'm going to consider it to be false.

12. The National policy Institute, estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.'

It would also cost us our values and our history. A nation of immigrants expelling new immigrants. Sounds hypocritical to me.

13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances to their countries of origin.

Hell, it's their money, they earned it. In America, we let people do what they want with the money they've earned. If you want to go someplace where people are told how to spend their money, I hear North Korea's nice this time of year.

14. 'The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One million sex crimes are committed by Illegal Immigrants in the United States.'

This claim is sourced to a dead link on some shill, fake doctor's website advertising her $400/hr crime counseling services. I give it no credence.

(Especially because there are 300 million people in the US. If that statistic was true, one out of every 300 would be raped by an "illegal" person each year. This is clearly false, since the rape rate is much lower than .00333/yr and quite obviously, citizens also commit sex crimes.

That all came from an email? It's still spam and annoying to copy/paste your own comments around Newsvine.

But it's an entirely different -- and even worse -- thing to copy-paste someone else's work onto Newsvine, presenting it as your own thoughts. Especially when those thoughts are completely inaccurate and false.

Nice factchecking, redsfan.