Surge in Immigration Laws Around U.S.

[DanaC]

Apart from the whole making things up aspect, have we also considered the possibility that some of those figures may be skewed by a) an overwillingness to believe illlegal immigrants are responsible for crimes and therefore more likely to be targetted/arrested/accused (similar to the way black men were almost always found guilty of rape in the segregated south) and b) uncharted, illegal immigrants are a very handy place to hang unsolved crimes?

[bluecuracao]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Apart from the whole making things up aspect, have we also considered the possibility that some of those figures may be skewed by a) an overwillingness to believe illlegal immigrants are responsible for crimes and therefore more likely to be targetted/arrested/accused (similar to the way black men were almost always found guilty of rape in the segregated south) and b) uncharted, illegal immigrants are a very handy place to hang unsolved crimes?

It's entirely possible. But we don't even need to go that far to show how things can become skewed.

For example, in posts #22 and #25, rk points out two highly-publicized cases of illegal immigrants who have been charged with rape and/or murder. Then, in post #32, he shows us an article from a town in Texas, about how thousands of 'aggravated felons' were identified by the border patrol in their area.

The inference is scary, isn't it--it seems like thousands of violent criminals are trying to cross through a small town in Texas every year!

But then we realize that the numbers apply to a multi-county, 17,000 square-mile area that includes the Texas town. And then we find out that an 'aggravated felony' can mean one of at least 10 different things with varying levels of severity, about 2 of which are violent crimes.