Trump’s hate-filled rant ignores facts on immigrant crime and economic benefits | Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s hateful and mendacious speech Thursday, blaming immigrants for crime, “social dysfunction” and economic hardship, is refuted by a wide range of immigration statistics, which clearly show that immigrants significantly support the U.S. economy and commit crimes at far lower rates than people born in the United States.

On Thursday night, Trump condemned immigrants in a broad and vicious invective, describing them as “illegal and disruptive populations” and attacking “those who hate, steal, murder and destroy everything America stands for.” He pledged to block all migration from “third world countries” to allow the “American system to fully recover.”

The president’s post follows a deadly shooting in Washington DC on Wednesday in which a National Guard member was injured and another killed by a 29-year-old Afghan national who had aided the US military effort in Afghanistan and was evacuated to the United States after the US military withdrew.

The shooting sparked even more anti-immigration rhetoric from the Trump administration, which indicated it would further intensify its crackdown on immigrant communities — already the center of fierce opposition from civil rights groups, Democratic lawmakers and the public.

Since the shooting, Trump has pledged to conduct a full review of asylum cases and green cards issued to people from certain countries.

This unprecedented message from a US president – ​​nasty even by Trump’s standards – contradicts extensive research irrefutably showing that immigrants to the US commit fewer crimes than people born there, and have done so for over a century.

Despite Trump’s message, in which he falsely claims that 53 million people in the United States — “most of whom are on welfare, come from bankrupt countries, or come from prisons, mental institutions, gangs or drug cartels” — contribute to “high crime,” economists have found that immigrants are 60 percent less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born individuals. This trend has remained constant over the past 150 years.

Additionally, as immigration rates have increased in recent decades, crime rates have fallen dramatically across the country. According to an analysis by the American Immigration Council (AIC), the share of immigrants in the U.S. population has more than doubled since 1980, from 6.2% that year to 13.9% in 2022. During the same period, the overall crime rate fell 60.4%, from 5,900 crimes per 100,000 residents to 2,335. This includes a 34.5% decrease. violent crimes and a 63.3% reduction in property crimes.

In his message, Trump also claimed that immigrants and their children “are supported by massive payments from patriotic American citizens who…put up with what has happened to our country, but it eats them alive to do so.”

“A migrant earning $30,000 on a green card will receive about $50,000 in annual benefits for their family,” Trump added.

His assertion is flatly contradicted by data showing that immigrants contribute significantly to the U.S. economy. In 2023, undocumented immigrant households contributed $89.8 billion in federal, state and local taxes, while holding $299 billion in purchasing power, according to the AIC.

The organization also found that the vast majority of immigrants do not rely on state governments to guarantee housing. Instead, in 2023, immigrant households paid more than $167 billion in rent in the real estate market and held more than $6.6 billion in real estate wealth.

Trump, who also claimed that “this refugee burden is the primary cause of social dysfunction in America,” pointed with particular malice at what he described as “hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia.” [who] take over the once great state of Minnesota.”

“Somali gangs are roaming the streets looking for ‘prey,’” the US president said.

He added, with open racism, that Ilhan Omar – a Minnesota congresswoman – was “always wrapped in her swaddled hijab” and suggested she had married his brother.

Home to the largest Somali population in the United States, many of whom arrived as refugees fleeing famine and civil war, Minnesota was labeled a “sanctuary jurisdiction” by the Justice Department in August. According to the department, this designation applies to states, cities or counties whose laws “impede the enforcement of federal immigration laws.”

Trump has previously accused immigrants of “poisoning the blood of our country,” but despite repeatedly claiming his immigration raids target criminals across the country, a new study from the Cato Institute found that 73 percent of people detained by ICE have no convictions.

The study also found that nearly half had no criminal convictions or even any pending criminal charges and only 5 percent had been convicted of violent crimes.