Killing fuels border debate
Texas leaders join growing fray over illegal immigration
WASHINGTON — The death of a 20-year-old college student allegedly at the hands of an immigrant in Iowa has upended the immigration debate and galvanized Republicans ahead of the midterm elections, enveloping Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in a war of words with Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera.
A new Cato Institute report based on Texas crime statistics shows that people in the country illegally commit serious crimes at lower rates than nativeborn Americans.
The rate for legal immigrants is even lower.
Nevertheless, the arrest of a man suspected of being in the country illegally in the death of Iowan Mollie Tibbetts has fueled the hardline position that illegal immigration is a significant source of crime, turning it into a potent GOP campaign theme in November.
In a Fox interview Thursday, Trump called Tibbetts “this beautiful young girl … killed by a horrible person that came in from Mexico, illegally
“It’s another example of an American being killed by someone who should not be here in the first place, and that’s directly due to our current laws not being enforced, our borders not being secured, and elected officials not protecting America and its citizens.”
Maria Espinoza, Remembrance Project co-founder
here,” suggesting the need for his proposed border wall and tougher immigration laws.
Trump also has strongly backed the Houston-based Remembrance Project, which opened a Washington office in the early days of his administration to champion the victims of crimes committed by immigrants living in the country illegally.
“It’s another example of an American being killed by someone who should not be here in the first place, and that’s directly due to our current laws not being enforced, our borders not being secured, and elected officials not protecting America and its citizens,” said Remembrance Project co-founder Maria Espinoza.
Debate challenge issued
Soon after Tibbetts’ body was found Tuesday in a cornfield, a month after she disappeared while jogging, Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted, “This is why so many Americans are angry about sanctuary cities. It’s why Texas banned sanctuary cities. It’s about safety.”
Patrick first jumped into the fray Thursday, going on to challenge Rivera, who had said earlier on Fox News that Tibbetts’ death is a “murder story … not an immigration story.”
Rivera, taking on his own conservative cable network, also tweeted that the tragedy was being used “to promote (the) proven false notion that undocumented immigrants are disproportionately committing violent crimes. #PewFoundation & other objective researchers say those immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than citizens.”
Patrick, who has so far refused to debate his Democratic opponent, Mike Collier, ended his own Fox interview by pressing for a nationally televised debate with Rivera.
“The CNNs, the MSNBCs, most of the print media in this country and the Democrats — they are all accomplices in the death of this young girl and the death of everyone else,” Patrick said. “And even Geraldo Rivera … I saw him on Fox saying, ‘I feel badly about this, but —’ There is no ‘but,’ and I’ll be happy to debate Geraldo Rivera any time, any place, anywhere on this issue. We have to secure this border and protect the lives of American citizens.”
Rivera fired back in a series of tweets.
“@DanPatrick claims outrageously that I’m effectively an accomplice to horrifying murder of #mollytibbetts because I beg compassion & mercy for undocumented immigrants — How dare he make so false an allegation? He is fear-mongering & I accept his challenge for debate.”
Rivera added: “Vast majority of the 11-12 million undocumented here are hardworking, otherwise law-abiding-For decades they’ve come & gone home over Southern border. Since 9/11, these workers have been treated as terrorists by politicians like @DanPatrick. Ratify #DACA bring reason to immigration.”
Texas crime data compared
Amid reports about the immigration status of the suspect, 24year-old Mexican national and farmworker Cristhian Bahena Rivera, some of Tibbetts’ friends and family members also have called for the case not to be politicized.
Tibbetts’ aunt, Billie Jo Calderwood, posted a message on Facebook on Tuesday saying, “Please remember, Evil comes in EVERY color.”
“I also know what Mollie stood for,” said Breck Goodman, a family friend who spoke at a vigil in Iowa on Wednesday. “So I don’t want her death to be used as propaganda. I don’t want her death to be used for more prejudice and for more discrimination, and I don’t think she would want that, either.”
The study by the libertarian Cato Institute was first released in February and then updated with new Texas crime data Tuesday, the same day Tibbetts’ body was found. The numbers suggest that immigrants in the country illegally do not increase local crime rates. Looking at conviction rates in 2015 and 2016, author Alex Nowrasteh found that as a percentage of their respective populations, there were 50 percent fewer criminal convictions of immigrants in the country illegally than of native-born Americans.
The gap holds true for homicides and other serious crimes. Nowrasteh found that 746 nativeborn Texans, 32 immigrants without legal authorization to be in the country, and 28 immigrants authorized to stay were convicted of homicide in 2016.
Nowrasteh focused his study on Texas because, unlike California, it has no sanctuary city policies, meaning law enforcement agencies cooperate with federal immigration authorities and produce data on immigration status. He noted that the state was also an ideal laboratory because it borders Mexico, has a large population of immigrants who live in the country illegally, is politically conservative, and has a tough “law and order” reputation.
His findings have been partly challenged by economist John R. Lott Jr. of the Crime Prevention Research Center, which released a working paper earlier this year suggesting that immigrants living without legal permission in Arizona from 1985 through 2017 had far higher prison admissions rates than U.S. citizens.
Nowrasteh disputed those findings, arguing that Lott erroneously inflated the incarceration rate for immigrants in the country illegally by combining them with legally authorized immigrants who had subsequently been targeted for deportation, either because of criminal activity or by violating the terms of their visas.
Immigration hard-liners like Espinoza, however, say the statistics miss their point.
“It’s ridiculous to get into the weeds about that. How many Americans is the Cato Institute and Geraldo Rivera OK with being killed before something is done?” she said. “One crime committed against Americans because our laws are not enforced is one crime too many, and certainly one stolen life is one too many taken at the hands of illegal aliens.”