COMM 150: Why the media covering the 'immigration crisis' need to stop and take a deep breath

Edward Schumacher-Matos


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/29/AR2010042903646.html


Forget the hyperventilated furor over the new Arizona immigration law and consider this overlooked fact: The number of illegal immigrants getting into the country has slowed to a relative trickle.

And more have left than are coming in. The number of unauthorized immigrants in the country has gone from an estimated high of 12.5 million in 2007 to 10.8 million in this year's first quarter and is still dropping, according to experts in the Census Bureau, the Department of Homeland Security and some think tanks.

The illegal immigration crisis, in other words, is easing -- and is not really a crisis, except in the eyes of activists, political opportunists and breathless media.

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After the dangerous overreaction in Arizona, what we need now is for everyone to calm down. The best thing that could happen would be if responsible Republican and Democratic leaders -- and there are many -- tuned out all the noise and started a discussion over who we want to admit into our country and what kind of country we want it to be. Only two basic premises should guide our response to illegal immigration: what is best for America and what works.

The anger in Arizona and elsewhere may be partly understandable, but someone among our leaders has to tell people that their feelings don't fit the facts and to -- yes -- trust the government. It has been doing a pretty good job gearing up to meet the immigration challenge under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

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On crime, meanwhile, despite public fears, studies show that unauthorized immigrants commit violent crimes at a rate of four to eight times less than American citizens.

http://www.bibdaily.com/pdfs/Rumbaut%20-%20Undocumented%20Immigration%20Crime%20and%20Imprisonment.pdf

" Undocumented Immigration and Rates of Crime and Imprisonment:
Popular Myths and Empirical Realities" by Rubén G. Rumbaut, University of California, Irvine
Paper presented to the Police Foundation National Conference on
“The Role of Local Police: Striking a Balance Between
Immigration Enforcement and Civil Liberties,”
Washington, DC, August 21-22, 2008