Like native-born, some immigrants, not all, commit crimes

Iwould bet that every Latino journalist who covers immigration has been accused of excusing undocumented immigrants.

This is especially true if the journalist is part of my tribe, Mexican Americans. Mexicans make up the largest share of immigrants to the United States — both those with and without documents.

About 20 years ago, a charming woman wrote me to say that taking advice from a “Mexican” about stopping illegal immigration was like “asking the Germans to help plan the D-day invasion.” Another reader told me I wasn’t “fooling anyone” and everyone knew that I was “trying to open the border to bring in more cousins.”

If I were to compile all those emails in a book, I would title it “The Immigration Debate for Dummies.”

Let me set the record straight. Latinos are conservative by nature. Our lives revolve around family, community and hard work. For many, faith and Catholicism also loom large. Raised in a patriarchy with fathers and grandfathers acting as strong male figures, we were taught to defer to authority, support law enforcement and respect the rule of law.

That’s why you didn’t see us rioting and looting after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, or storming the Capitol and knocking cops to the ground on Jan. 6, 2021.

As for ethnic loyalty, Mexican Americans born in the United States don’t usually identify with Mexican nationals. Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Colombians and Salvadorans might as well be from different planets.

So when a Latino undocumented immigrant is charged with a horrific crime, don’t expect much leniency from U.s.-born Latinos.

Recently, three high-profile cases have enraged the public.

■ In Virginia, 32-year-old Renzo Mendoza Montes, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, was arrested on Feb. 22 and charged with the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl.

■ In Louisiana, 19-yearold Angel Matias Castellanos-orellana,

an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, was arrested on Feb. 25 and charged with armed robbery, aggravated battery and the first-degree rape and aggravated assault of a 14-year-old girl at knifepoint.

■ And in Georgia, 26-year-old Jose Antonio Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, was arrested on Feb. 23 in connection with the death of 22-year-old Laken Riley, a nursing student who once attended the University of Georgia. Ibarra was charged with seven felony counts: malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping and concealing the death of another.

For decades, FBI crime statistics have revealed a truth that may seem counterintuitive: Those who come to the United States unlawfully are unlikely to commit crimes once they get here. Undocumented immigrants — perhaps eager to remain under the radar — are less likely to have a rap sheet than the native-born.

I know what you’re thinking: “But these people already committed a crime when they entered the country illegally.”

Not always. Entering the United States without permission, or overstaying a visa, is usually not a crime at all. Unless it’s a repeat offense, or involves smuggling, it’s normally treated as a civil infraction. That’s why those who enter the country illegally tend to get

deported on their first offense — or even returned to their home country voluntarily, not sent to prison.

The fact is, Americans should be more afraid of one another than they are of migrants. But, as a Cuban American professor who studies immigrant crime once told me, fear doesn’t listen to facts. Especially in the wake of terrible crimes that break your heart.

As the grandson of a legal immigrant, I know that most immigrants don’t come here to do harm and instead do a lot of good.

As the son of a retired peace officer, I want violent offenders put away for a long time in U.S. prisons and not simply deported.

As the father of teenagers, including two young women, I want our justice system to inflict harsh punishment on predators.

But as a journalist, I see the absurdity of blaming all undocumented immigrants for crimes allegedly committed by a few.

We could do the same the next time a group of MAGA supporters stages a riot, or a 21-year-old white male carries out a mass shooting.

Laura Figueroa, a junior at the University of Georgia, got it right. “It’s horrible that it is even a possibility that people would be targeting us for what one person did,” Figueroa recently told NBC News. “If we did that to every group of people who did something wrong, we’d never have any peace.”

Peace. How sweet the sound.

RUBEN NAVARRETTE COMMENTARY