--- title: Donald Trump Is Wrong—Immigrants Don’t Commit More Crimes description: Donald Trump was wrong in the first debate against Hillary Clinton; Immigrants help reduce crime canonical: https://time.com/4509413/presidential-debate-donald-trump-immigration/ author: David Bier article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-27T14:17:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:24.490Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Donald Trump Is Wrong—Immigrants Don’t Commit More Crimes og:description: They can actually help reduce crime og:url: https://time.com/4509413/presidential-debate-donald-trump-immigration/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt427a3b4a63abc8f1/6988a7ad5f570f4432b22a9a/donald-trump10.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3960 og:image:height: 2228 og:image:alt: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gestures during the Presidential Debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., on Sept. 26, 2016. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Is Wrong—Immigrants Don’t Commit More Crimes twitter:description: They can actually help reduce crime twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt427a3b4a63abc8f1/6988a7ad5f570f4432b22a9a/donald-trump10.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Is Wrong—Immigrants Don’t Commit More Crimes > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=7c659cb4-e597-42a3-8850-b31a1324589e&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Top Moments Of Clinton And Trump's First Debate [Watch (HLS stream): Top Moments Of Clinton And Trump's First Debate](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yoaypmKJ.m3u8) (1:53)  _Published 2016-09-27. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump squared off at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Monday for the first of three presidential debates_ by [David Bier](https://time.com/author/david-bier/) ## David Bier Contributor Contributor Sep 27, 2016 2:17 PM UTC  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gestures during the Presidential Debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., on Sept. 26, 2016. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gestures during the Presidential Debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., on Sept. 26, 2016. Win McNamee—Getty Images by [David Bier](https://time.com/author/david-bier/) ## David Bier Contributor Contributor Sep 27, 2016 2:17 PM UTC Immigration only made a brief cameo in [Monday night’s debate](http://time.com/4509140/presidential-debate-what-you-missed-clinton-trump/?xid=homepage), but Donald Trump managed to once again falsely connect immigrants to crime. In response to a question on race relations in America, Trump [said](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/26/the-first-trump-clinton-presidential-debate-transcript-annotated/): “We have gangs roaming the street. And in many cases, they’re illegally here, illegal immigrants. And they have guns. And they shoot people. And we have to be very strong. And we have to be very vigilant.” No matter how researchers [ slice the data](http://www.cato.org/blog/immigration-crime-what-research-says), though, the numbers show that immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. But that’s not good enough for Trump’s followers. They firmly believe immigrants make America less safe. What the anti-immigration crowd needs to understand is that not only are immigrants less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans, but they also protect us from crime in several ways. To begin with, immigrants prevent crime indirectly by simply [committing far fewer crimes](http://www.cato.org/blog/immigration-crime-what-research-says) per person than native-born Americans. Here’s how it works: imagine 1 out of every 20 people is a criminal. If you are a criminal, you have a 5% chance of bumping into another criminal who tells you about an opportunity to commit a crime or helps you carry it out. When an influx of low-crime immigrants enters the country, they reduce the chances of you making that connection, thus reducing overall crime. This is one reason why homicides and robberies in the most immigrant-dense cities [ fell further](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00706.x/abstract) than [ elsewhere in the country](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2009.00162.x/abstract) following a surge in immigration in recent years. It is no surprise that America’s crime rates plunged as immigration surged in the 1990s. Immigrants also reduce crime rates by infusing new capital into rundown areas. Studies have shown that filling [abandoned buildings](https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=145937) and fixing up neighborhoods makes residents less likely to commit crimes, and new residents also fill public coffers, which can be invested in better law enforcement. Buffalo is a good example. Denise Beehag of the International Institute of Buffalo [ told](http://www.npr.org/2015/12/02/458007064/resettled-refugees-help-to-bring-buffalo-back) NPR last year that immigrants “were pretty much the only group that was moving into the West side of Buffalo and taking over those vacant houses and businesses.” Crime fell most dramatically in Buffalo in Bangladeshi immigrant areas—[by 70%](http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/east-side/bangladeshis-transforming-buffalo-one-block-at-a-time-20151212). Immigrants also reduce crime in more direct ways. For starters, about 25,000 police officers, detectives and other law enforcement personnel were born in another country, according to the Census Bureau in 2014\. _USA Today_[ reported ](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/03/21/immigrant-police-officers/70236828/)last year that more law enforcement agencies across the country are recruiting immigrants to fill vacancies in tough areas and connect with the diverse population. Immigrant police officers expand the size of the law enforcement labor force, which lowers crime in two ways. First, the sheer number of cops [has been shown](https://www.brennancenter.org/publication/what-caused-crime-decline) to have a depressing effect on crime. And second, allowing agencies the ability to hire the best recruit possible increases the quality of their workforce, which further depresses crime. Of course, immigrants who aren’t cops also stop crimes and save lives. There are another nearly 6,000 immigrants working as firefighters, roughly 14,000 as correctional or probation officers, almost 70,000 working in private security, and nearly 700,000 in medical and health services, including nearly half of all diagnosticians and treating practitioners. Immigrants are saving lives without much publicity in all of these fields. But even outside of them, news stories abound of immigrants preventing or stopping crime. Consider two recent cases: Peter Lars Jonsson and Carl-Fredrik Arndt, Swedish students at Stanford University, were cycling home in Spring 2016 when they [stopped a sexual assault](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/hero-grad-student-describes-catching-stanford-rapist-article-1.2664718) and apprehended the perpetrator. They provided the key testimony against him at trial. In 2015, Feidin Santana, a Dominican immigrant living in South Carolina, [caught](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/feidin-santana-who-recorded-man-shot-police-officer-speaks-out-n338171) a police officer killing a black man named Walter Scott on camera, helping lead to the indictment of the murderer. It’s not just legal immigrants either. In 2011, Diaz Chacon, a Mexican immigrant without legal documents, [stopped](http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44206940/ns/us%5Fnews-life/t/man-who-saved-girl-says-hes-illegal-immigrant/) an abduction of a 6-year-old girl. Chacon jumped into his pickup and chased the kidnapper until the driver crashed, before pulling the child from the van and returning her to safety. Another unauthorized immigrant acting as a night watchman at a convenience store fended off [and shot](http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/sheriff-immigrant-shot-burglar-teen/article%5Fbc431351-1e7b-56ae-a17d-27505a2219d9.html) a burglar in 2008 in Texas. Moreover, situations in which immigrants provide key testimony against criminals is not at all rare. In fact, there were 76,000 U visas[ issued](https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/Reports%20and%20Studies/Immigration%20Forms%20Data/Victims/I918u%5Fvisastatistics%5Ffy2016%5Fqtr2.pdf) from 2008 to 2016 to foreign witnesses to crimes cooperating with law enforcement. Another 120,000 had applied and had applications delayed due to congressional caps on visas. Donald Trump is not wrong to say that some immigrants can cause crime. But they help make the country safer and more livable. ## Transcript [ APPLAUSE ] Hey, how are you, Donald? I'm good thanks. [ APPLAUSE ] I have a feeling that by the end of this evening I'm going to blamed for everything that's ever happened. Why not? Why not? Yeah, why not? [ LAUGH ] The next segment, we're continuing the subject of- Well at least I have a plan to fight ISIS. No, no. You're telling the enemy everything you want to do. No, we're not. See, you're telling the enemy everything you want to do. We are outlining- No wonder you've been fighting, No wonder you've been fighting ISIS your entire adult life. I think my strongest asset maybe by far is my temperament. I have a winning temperament I know how win . >> Wow okay . >> [ LAUGH ] l I will release my tax returns, against my lawyer's wishes, when she releases her 33, 000 emails that have been deleted. He has really started his political activity based on this racist lie that our first black president Was not an American citizen. We're talking about racial healing in this segment. What do you say to Americans- Well, I say nothing because I was able to get him to produce it, he should've produced it a long time before, I say nothing. Donald supported the invasion of Iraq. Wrong. That is absolutely- Wrong. Proved Over and over again. Wrong. He actually. When you have 4, 000 people killed in Chicago by guns from the beginning of the presidency of Barack Obama, his hometown, you have to have stop and frisk. Now, in all fairness to Secretary Clinton. Yes, is that okay? Good, I want you to be very happy. [ LAUGH ] Well I hope the fact checkers are turning up the volume and really working hard. Good night everyone. 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