5 questions on immigration to know before GOP debate

Immigration and border security undoubtedly will draw much attention during the first GOP presidential primary debate on Thursday, thanks in large part to incendiary comments real-estate mogul Donald Trump has made since announcing his candidacy in June.

That’s when Trump said that in addition to bringing drugs and crime to the U.S., immigrants from Mexico are “rapists” though, "some, I assume, are good people.”

Since then, Trump has soared in the polls, and his rapid rise has spurred other GOP candidates to harden their stances on immigration.

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Several high-profile murders police say were committed by undocumented immigrants who slipped through the hands of federal law-enforcement officials have further propelled immigration into the spotlight.

The most recent murder happened in Painesville, Ohio, not far from Cleveland, where the debate is being held.

Whether that incident comes up Thursday night remains to be seen. But here are answers to five important questions on immigration and border security in advance of the debate:

Q. Are undocumented immigrants more likely to commit crimes because they already broke the law, either by crossing the border illegally or overstaying their visas?

A. Criminologists have repeatedly found that immigrants are no more likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. In one often cited study published in 2012 in Justice Quarterly, University of Massachusetts professor Bianca Bersani concluded that “foreign-born individuals exhibit remarkably low levels of involvement in crime across their life course,” but also found that crimes rates rise among the children of immigrants.

The Pew Research Center has a summary that includes a chart comparing crime rates among first- and second-generation immigrants and native-born. It shows that first-generation immigrants have lower crimes rates than native-born.

Bersani’s report does not distinguish between legal immigrants and those in the country illegally. But a new report by Marc Rosenblum at the Migration Policy Institute, a research center in Washington, D.C., estimates that 300,000 undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. have been convicted of felonies and another 390,000 have been convicted of serious misdemeanor crimes. Combined, that represents about 6.1 percent of the nation’s approximately 11.3 million undocumented immigrants.

In 2011, the Government Accountability Office conducted a study on the number of incarcerated immigrants, both legal and illegal. The report found that there were 55,000 immigrants serving time in federal prisons in 2010, up 7 percent from 2005. The report said there were about 296,000 immigrants in state prisons or local jails in 2009, up 35 percent from 2003.

Q. How secure is the border?

A. Border Patrol apprehensions, commonly used to gauge the flow of illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border, show there has been an upswing over the past two fiscal years after falling sharply from 2005 to 2012. In fiscal year 2014, the Border Patrol reported 479,371 apprehensions along the southern border, up 15.6 percent from the 414,397 apprehensions in fiscal year 2013, which were up 16 percent from the year before. The increases were driven largely by an influx of Central Americans, especially women and children. Despite the uptick, apprehensions along the Southwest border remain at the lowest levels since the early 1970s, and more than 70 percent lower than fiscal year 2000, when apprehensions peaked at 1.6 million.

Q. How many “sanctuary” cities are there in the U.S.?

A. At least 270 cities and counties in the U.S. have adopted policies that limit cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under these policies, cities and counties are restricted from turning immigrants over to ICE under so-called “detainers,” requests to take custody of immigrants for possible deportation. The policies are intended to maintain trust between local police and the community by not turning immigrants who commit minor crimes over to ICE.

In 2014, California implemented a law called the Trust Act that limits cooperation with ICE. Between Jan. 1, 2014 and June 19 of this year, 10,516 ICE detainers have been declined by jurisdictions in California, according to ICE. Another 17,193 detainers have been declined by cities and counties in other states. The Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank in Washington, D.C., that pushes for more immigration enforcement, has created a map of “sanctuary” communities in the U.S. The map shows only one sanctuary city in Arizona, South Tucson.

Q. What is the status of President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration offering protection from deportation to undocumented immigrants?

A. The two programs are on hold after a federal judge in February issued a temporary injunction in response to a lawsuit, filed by Texas and two dozen other states including Arizona, that seeks to have the programs declared illegal. The Obama administration has appealed.

The first program would expand Obama’s 2012 initiative allowing undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to apply for deportation protection and work permits. The second program would offer the same benefits to undocumented parents with children who are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that almost 3.9 million additional undocumented immigrants would qualify for the programs and that 5 million overall would qualify.

Q. How many undocumented immigrants live in the U.S. and where do they live?

A. After two decades of rapid growth, the nation’s undocumented population reached 12.2 million in 2007 but has remained stable at about 11.3 million over the last five years, according to the Pew Research Center. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that about 56 percent of the undocumented population is from Mexico. The five states with the largest number of undocumented immigrants are California, with 3 million; Texas, with 1.4 million; New York with 867,000; Florida with 605,000; and Illinois with 519,000. Arizona ranks 9th with 264,000, according to MPI.