Republican front-runner Donald Trump has sparked outrage among Mexicans and Latinos over comments he made when he kicked off his Presidential bid about Mexico sending its "rapists" and criminals to the U.S. and calling for a human-proof wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to keep them out.
Since then, Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric has become more strident: he wants to deport 11.3 million undocumented workers (6 million of which are Mexicans) and strip babies born to undocumented immigrants of their birthright citizenship.
Here is some data that suggest that five of Trump's most outrageous statements about immigrants, Mexico and the border do not correspond to reality.
1- Immigrants are no criminals. In his kickoff speech in June, Trump said that Mexican undocumented immigrants are "rapists" and they are "bringing drugs and crime." Data shows that the real estate mogul's assertions are wrong. According to a July report by the American Immigration Council, immigration is associated with lower crime rates and immigrants are less likely than the native-born to be serious criminals.
Between 1990 and 2013, when unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. more than tripled from 3.5 million to 11.3 million, FBI data indicate that the violent crime rate declined 48%—which included falling rates of aggravated assault, robbery, rape, and murder. Likewise, the property crime rate fell 41%, including declining rates of motor vehicle theft, larceny/robbery, and burglary.
The American Immigration Council also found that immigrants are less likely than the native-born to engage in either violent or nonviolent “antisocial” behaviors; that immigrants are less likely than the native-born to be repeat offenders among “high risk” adolescents; and that immigrant youth who were students in U.S. middle and high schools in the mid-1990 and are now young adults have among the lowest delinquency rates of all young people.
2- A border wall is no solution. Trump has said repeatedly that if elected President, he will build an impenetrable 2,000 mile wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to keep "illegals" out. There is already a wall in one third (650 miles) of the border. But it has been pretty much irrelevant. In fact, data indicates that it may have backfired. In an article in Foreign Policy, Princeton sociologist Douglas Massey said that evidence shows that money spent on border enforcement, wall included, "is worse than useless — it’s counterproductive."
The "militarization of the border," as Massey calls it, made it harder, if not impossible, for immigrant workers to go back home as they did before the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act was enacted. Researchers estimate that tightening of border enforcement since 1986 actually added 4 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. in 2010.
3- Mexico will not pay for the wall. Throughout the course of his presidential bid, Trump has assured voters that his plan for a wall would be subsidized by the Mexican government. "Trust me, Mexico will pay," the billionaire said on July 31.
But Mexican Presidential spokesperson Eduardo Sánchez called Trump's assertion that Mexico would pay for a wall "false." Sánchez said: "It reflects an enormous ignorance for what Mexico represents, and also the irresponsibility of the candidate who's saying it."
The idea that Mexico will pay for a blatant monument to anti-Mexican hostility defies all logic.
4- Mexican immigration has declined. Trump has called the immigration situation "completely out of control" and has promised "to take our country back." But Pew Research Center's data shows that Mexican unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. declined by 1 million, from the 6.9 million 2007 peak to 5.9 million in 2012. Driven partly by economic and demographic factors, net migration from Mexico reached zero in 2010, and since then more Mexicans have left the U.S. than have arrived.
5- Mexico is no threat to the U.S. economy. Trump claims Mexico "is not a friend" because "they're killing us economically…." The US has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a GDP 13 times larger than Mexico's; likewise, the U.S. per capita income is four times larger than Mexico's. With $308 billion yearly trade, Mexico's is the U.S. third largest trade partner after Canada and China. By no stretch of the imagination could Mexico be "killing" the U.S. economically.
But by listening to Trump, one would not know that Mexico is a friendly nation closely linked to the U.S. by geography, trade, culture and history.
Twitter: @DoliaEstevez
