U.S. President Donald Trump backed up his anti-immigrant rhetoric in his Tuesday speech to Congress with factually incorrect information about crimes committed by immigrants.
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“My administration has answered the pleas of the American people for immigration enforcement and border security,” Trump said. “By finally enforcing our immigration laws, we will raise wages, help the unemployed, save billions of dollars, and make our communities safer for everyone. We want all Americans to succeed, but that can't happen in an environment of lawless chaos. We must restore integrity and the rule of law to our borders.”
“As we speak, we are removing gang members, drug dealers and criminals that threaten our communities and prey on our citizens. Bad ones are going out as I speak tonight and as I have promised,” he added.
But Trump’s claim that deporting migrants would lead to less crime was challenged by Steve Rattner, who worked for the Obama administration, who tweeted, “Memo to Trump: immigrants are much less likely to be criminals than native-born Americans.”
He linked his tweeted with a study by the Pew Research Center that showed new arrivals to the United States were far less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.
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“Why does the crime rate soar among second-generation immigrants compared with their foreign-born peers? Until recently, most sociologists have explained this increase by noting that many second-generation immigrants feel caught between two conflicting worlds - the old world of their parents and the new world of their birth,” the study states. “But recently researchers have posited an alternate theory: Second-generation immigrants are just ‘catching up’ with the rest of us.”
At the meeting, Trump also revealed the creation of an agency called VOICE, Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement. The new office, which he said will "provide a voice" to families of crime victims, will publish a weekly list of crimes committed by immigrants, adding to the administration’s hostility against them.