Immigration Statistics: Exposing the Lies and the Harms They Cause

Guest blogger: Garrett Webb, law student, University of San Francisco

Immigration Statistics:

The Trump administration has built a platform on being anti-immigrant, cracking down on the number of visas granted and calling for a massive increase in the deportation of undocumented immigrants. Associated with this call is the claim that undocumented immigrants are criminals and a danger to the American public. A recent executive order issued by the White House perfectly demonstrates the administration’s opinion on immigrants. It states that, in previous years, millions of undocumented immigrants have come to the United States and that many of the undocumented immigrants are a danger to the American public, and this justifies harsh immigration policies.¹ Yet, this stance is a mischaracterization of actual immigration statistics and is based on unsubstantiated claims unrepresented by data.

            That statement gives the impression that most immigrants that come to the United States are undocumented and are here illegally. This is not the truth. According to a Pew Research analysis of Census Bureau data the total number of immigrants present in the country was 51.8 million.² Of these 51.8 million immigrants 37.8 million were here lawfully and fourteen million were unauthorized.³ Being unauthorized only means that an immigrant does not have full legal status. Around six million, or roughly forty percent, had some form of temporary protection from deportation. This leaves around eight million immigrants with neither legal status nor temporary protection from deportation. This means that the majority of immigrants who come to America do so legally or are here with some form of temporary protection.

            The Data does support that immigrants are a danger to the United States. The American Council on Immigration surveyed crime statistics from all fifty states from 1990 to 2014. During that period, despite an increase in the number of undocumented immigrants, there was no corresponding increase in crime.⁴ A more concentrated study, conducted by the National Institute of Justice in Texas, found that undocumented individuals had much lower felony offense rates than U.S. citizens.⁵ These studies show that undocumented immigrants are not criminals like the administration claims and exposes these orders as nothing more than thinly veiled xenophobic policies. They solve no crimes and prevent no harm. Instead, individuals who have committed criminal acts can be seized by a militarized force and detained in a location with horrible conditions.

The Harm:

            The most harm these policies cause is to undocumented immigrants themselves. They are seeking to live their lives in peace when armed men seize them by force and whisk them off to an unknown location. The lives they are building are destroyed and they are often separated from their family members. However, these people are not the only ones that are harmed. These policies undermine the values this country is built on. People live in fear that armed men will seize them and take them to some unknown location. They understand that these agents are allowed to do this with little oversight. Allowing this undermines the values of freedom and due process that this country is built on. These freedoms are not just awarded to citizens and everyone in the country is owed these rights. Failing to provide them cheapens the country’s commitment to these rights.

            There are also harms to the American public caused by the country’s allocation of funds. In 2025 the U.S. government allocated 170 billion dollars to immigration and border enforcement related funding.⁶ Meanwhile, the amount of funding that the government allocated to Education is only 20 billion more than that, at 190 billion.  This is down nearly fifty billion from the 241 billion last year.⁷ Education is a crucial resource to the future of the country and without that funding many children’s educations will suffer. These funds are denied under the pretext of stopping dangerous criminals but, as discussed above, that is not the truth. Instead, these funds are denied purely to enforce a hateful agenda.

            In more recent times, the Trump administration has attempted to us these lies in more creative ways to abuse the power of the president. Trump has recently attempted to mobilize the National Guard into both Portland and Chicago under the pretext of assisting the Department of Homeland Security and ICE in enforcing the immigration laws.⁸ To support this action the administration has relied on an old statute, Title 10 of the United States Code, that allows the president to mobilize troops during times of invasion. This is a blatant misrepresentation of reality because law is still being imposed in these cities. The most alarming part is that these states did not want the National Guard sent in and doing so is a violation of the States rights. Luckily a federal judge has blocked the deployment of the National Guard in both cities but it seems only a matter of time until they try the same tactic again. Using lies to try to seize more power is a scary maneuver for the administration to be attempting.

            These policies cannot be allowed to continue. The American people cannot fall for these lies because the Trump administration does not have the American people’s best interest at heart. Instead, they need to remain skeptical and seek out the truth instead of blindly believing the words of dishonest leaders. Judges need to resist and announce just rulings based on the reality of the immigration system not believing what is stated. Only through the majority finding the truth can these lies be overcome, and a fairer system be created.