Alex Nowrasteh’s new blog post highlights the low number of incarcerated illegal immigrants in Georgia. For more than a decade, Texas was the only state that reported data on illegal immigrants arrested and convicted of crimes. But a new law in Georgia, enacted in May 2024, requires the state to publish quarterly data on the number of illegal immigrant inmates who have an immigration detainer by crime.
The newly reported Georgia data shows several things including:
- The illegal immigrant incarceration rate for homicide was 61 per 100,000. Meanwhile, the rate for the rest of the population, which includes legal immigrants and native-born Americans, was 90 per 100,000.
- The numbers indicate that illegal immigrants are not a disproportionate criminal threat, they do not increase crime rates, and extra enforcement of normal immigration laws will not lower crime rates.
As rhetoric continues about the alleged dangers of illegal immigrants, this data, along with long-standing data from Texas, shows that illegal immigrants do not pose more of a threat to the safety of Americans than legal immigrants and native-born Americans.
If you would like to speak with Alex about this, please let us know.
