Immigrants, Including “Illegal Aliens” in California, Have Much Lower Crime Rate than the Rest of Us

Frank,

You are justifying the sins (crimes) of others based in relationship to the amount of sins(crimes) of yet another group.

You are a lawyer, what is the legal definition of a criminal? Someone who has broken a law perhaps?

Isn't crossing the border illegally a crime? Even you used the label "illegal aliens" in your title. Then in fact the group that does is a larger sampling of criminals than you state so here.

Apparently you want to give them all a pass on breaking THAT law and start keeping score later, after they are "established" here. Then you reference their relative lack of criminal behaviour against legal citizens as a benchmark as to how "less bad" they are...

Consider the relative "lack" of crimes by illegal aliens is due to their keeping a low profile as by being caught in a crime, they should be deported, which does defeat their purpose for crossing the border illegally in the first place.

Of course, once again, you use one of the "usual suspects" of polling outfits to bolster your twisting of logic: Both common sense and the application of laws. The latter as a lawyer; you should know better.

Ps: If you give Dan Walters credibility here on this issue, shouldn't he be considered credible on other issues he brings up? He took the democratic led legislature to task especially Speaker Nunez over his personal excesses with campaign cash and his and Perata's lame attempt at extending their time in office via Proiposition 93. Just a thought...

How is it that a presumably well educated person like Frank has the audacity to tell us that illegal aliens commit fewer crimes than citizens when every single illegal alien IS A CRIMINAL BY DEFINITION? You lefty kooks really do believe your own propaganda, don't you. Amazing.

Gee whiz, I wonder if this could have anything to do with their fear of getting deported? This article is a laugh.

Hey Frank,

I read the poll. It defines what an "illegal alien" is too.

So why is "illegal alien" in your title in quotation marks? Isn't it the defacto description of some of those in question? What would a courtroom definition be if you were the lawyer involved in say an illegal alien drunk driving case which resulted in the deaths of American Citizens?

What does "illegal" mean to you. Isn't that something which is against the law, i.e. a crime? The very fact that they are in the U.S. makes thim criminals (people who commit crimes!)

If you all consider the fact that the one crime they do commit is living in a country with no papers, that being one crime, then it makes sense. And saying that fear of getting deported is a reason for not comitting crimes, you must not ever watch the news. People commit crimes knowing they're is a possibility of going to jail. At least with that, they won't be let out for a good court determined period of time. What's to stop a deportee from crossing again? I'm not for it but only because laws are laws. That's pretty much the only reason.

Hey Frank

Immigrants entering the country illegally is a federal misdemeanor, re-entering the United States after having been deported = a felony that carries up to 20 years in prison.

Bush has been a real eye-opener!!! What harms could be possible with 20 million illegals? Perhaps you think our Troops are getting flowers in Iraq...
ty for the laugh...hope you wake-up!!!!

Without taking sides I just like to point out a serious logic flaw in Mr. Russo’s argument. Mr. Russo uses statistics on immigrants to draw conclusions on illegal aliens. For example he uses, “People born outside the United States make up about 35 percent of California’s adult population but represent only about 17 percent of the state prison population.” Immigrants are not the same as illegal aliens. You cannot use this statistic on one category of people to draw conclusion on another category. This is totally illogical. Several of the statistics given include this flaw. To equate illegal aliens with immigrants is an insult to all of us who entered the states legally.

Entering the country without the proper papers is not a crime. It is a civil infraction. That is why first-timers are deported, not imprisoned (unless they have committed a real crime, such as fraud or dealing drugs). If entering the country without adequate documentation were a crime, then our courts would come to a standstill and we would have to spend our tax dollars on even more prisons, not only because we would have to prosecute 14 million non-Americans, but also the more than 14 million Americans who have abetted their crime by hiring them. Don't hold your breath on sending good capitalists to prison, though. They contribute to both parties. Once someone here without the proper papers is deported and returns, however, then he or she is, indeed, considered to be breaking a more serious statute, although the usual punishment is another deportation. That's how huge a crime it is. If committing a civil infraction makes first-time undocumented aliens criminals, then so are all of us who have ever gotten a ticket for speeding or having an expired inspection car sticker. But those statistics are not reflected in crime figures because, like crossing the border for the first time without proper papers, they are neither misdemeanors nor felonies.

I agree with MR. Russo. Why?

1. So, us American citizens think it's unfair when an "illegal' drives drunk illegally and crashes and accidentally kills an American citizen. Okay. But,yet, this illegal is sent to jail or prison right after this. Okay.

2. What about when an American Citizen drives DRUNK and kills an "illegal"? Is that okay?

3. See, "illegal immigrants" come here because their jobs in their home countries are MONOPOLIZED BY AMERICAN COMPANIES that go to their countries because people here don't want LOW WAGES; hence, the consequence is a a flight of immigrants into this country looking for the low-wage but higher wage than their home countries.

4. honestly, I believe that the whole fault lies on our capitalist ideals; yet, we want to benefit but we don't want others to benefit from our success.

5. This country is a country for immigrants. Also, even if we're a citizens and you're not Anglo-saxon, you ARE STILL treated like a SECOND-CLASS CITIZEN: native, asian, hispanic, black, etc...

6. Truth is, minorities try to act like white people by discriminating and scapegoating on illegals. And, guess what? Minorities' second citizenship class won't ascend to the first-class caucasian citizenship until we do a social movement and make law changes and support OBAMA for a change.

Now, this is an HONEST and REALISTIC truth. There is no lie about this. If you don't believe this, your mind is basically in the gutter because you're living in another world.

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