Misinformation about immigrants and crime

Fears of crime are constantly exaggerated to justify mass deportations of immigrants. What are the facts? Over 90% of 13 million undocumented persons living in this country have no criminal record. Crime rates are significantly lower for both legal and undocumented immigrants than for U.S. citizens. Most undocumented immigrants with criminal records only have traffic or immigration offenses. (See “Mass deportations will undermine our safety,” American Immigration Council.)

Massive misinformation also blames our country’s drug problems on immigrants, but our own statistics prove this false. Ninety percent of the fentanyl and other deadly drugs entering the U.S. from Mexico are brought through official ports of entry, not by immigrants illegally crossing the border (see U.S. Department of Homeland Security). According to the conservative Cato Institute, “86% of the people convicted of trafficking fentanyl across the border in 2021 were U.S. citizens,” (see “Fentanyl Is Smuggled for U.S. Citizens By U.S. Citizens, Not Asylum Seekers”).

Clearly, most undocumented persons living in the U.S. do not threaten public safety. The number of “criminal immigrants” does not support mass deportation. Consequently, roughly 50% of those now being deported have no criminal record, many have lived here for years, and made valuable contributions to family, community, and country.

Deportations have never brought reductions in crime, only increased spending by taxpayers, and often, negative impacts on our economy. Instead of leading to a fair immigration system for those in search of a better life (just like our own ancestors), costly deportations divert funds away from meaningful solutions, and raise prices in key sectors of our economy, such as agriculture and construction.

Roy Morey

Fort Davis

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Our economy is in jeopardy

President Trump has some good policies, but his economic policy is a disaster, and it is fraught with potential danger. His on-again, off-again tariffs on imports, trashing of federal departments and agencies, federal employee firings, and elimination of various federal programs are causing havoc within our economy. The uncertainty is promoting jitters among consumers and could provide a pullback in consumer spending and business and industry investments, which could lead to a recession. Consumer confidence plummeted in February with its largest monthly drop since August 2021.

Trump’s and Musk’s slash-and-burn approach to terminating federal workers not only affects the Washington, D.C. area but also states across the country. Only 400,000 out of 2.4 million federal workers live in the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland. The other 2 million are spread across the country, including California with 150,000 workers; Florida with 94,000; Georgia with 80,000; New York 54,000; Ohio 55,000; Pennsylvania 66,000; and Texas 130,000. In New Hampshire there are about 8,000 federal workers at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard who are under threat of losing jobs. The shipyard services our nuclear submarines who deploy in defense of our country. 

Please note about 30% of federal workers are veterans, including many who are fellow Navy veterans. 

Small private sector businesses across the country are being severely impacted by cuts to federal programs and the termination of federal contracts. About 7.5 million small company jobs are dependent on federal contracts. Elimination of these jobs could have a disastrous impact on our economy.

Donald Moskowitz

Londonderry NH