LatinaLista — The concept that all undocumented immigrants are criminals has been a hotly debatable subject ever since it was discovered that being in the country illegally isn’t a major crime that critics would have everyone to believe.
It isn’t until an undocumented immigrant has been deported and then returns is the immigrant considered a “criminal” in the classic sense of the word. Even then, using a term that also identifies rapists, murderers, bank robbers, car jackers, drug dealers, etc. is at best disingenuous to describe a person who returns to a society that has more jobs than what can be found back home or simply wants to be with his family he/she left behind.
Yet, time and time again the American people are subjected to the same distortions of fact to prove a point that is racist at its core — that American prisons are flooded with undocumented immigrants.
Though report after report discounts these untruthful assertions, the general public, who are ignorant and share the same unfounded fear of “foreigners,” scream these reports are wrong.
Well, here’s another report that might be a little harder for these people to scream about.
According to federal data — from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Secure Communities program, whose mission is to only lock up real criminals among the undocumented population — less than 7 percent of people booked into San Diego County jails were identified as undocumented immigrants.
What does it mean?
The figures suggest that undocumented immigrants are not committing more crimes than the general population in the region, a North County Times analysis found.
A reality that exists and will have to be proven time and time again — until people can see the facts without bias or hate.
