[QUOTE=magellan01]
Regarding the findings from the Institutional Hearing Program, I’m not sure it pokes holds into what I’ve been saying. It was a while ago and found 25% to be aliens ( of any sort. I think TKOS’s cirte was from 2004. And they might not be that far off. From your experience, what would you estimate—in the study you cited—to be the percent of illegals in the statistic of aliens in prison? PLease calrify if I’m missing something.
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If you are going to define “illegals” (a term that irks me to no end, in any case) as “people who entered the U.S. illegally, or overstayed their lawful period of authorized admission for reasons within their control” - well, it’s been quite a while, but I’d say a solid majority (maybe 60 - 80%) of the cases I saw were for people who were lawful permanent residents who were convicted of crimes, and were in prison for that reason. I only visited prisons in the Midwest (most frequently Stateville, near Chicago, but also prisons in Wisconsin, Ohio, Kansas, and Kentucky - my office also covered prisons in Minnesota and Michigan, but I never traveled there myself), so I don’t know whether those numbers would hold up nationwide.
It may or may not be noteworthy that our office covered Leavenworth, where substantial numbers of Marielitos were held - I don’t know how much the Marielitos may skew the statistics, but the current state of affairs with the Marielitos is that they physically cannot be deported, because Castro refuses to take them back. And prisoners cannot be held more than 6 months beyond the end of their sentences awaiting permission from their home country governments to be returned, so after 6 months, they are released under supervision and are out on the streets again. And with that particular population, hell yes, there have been problems with recidivism.
In citing immigration-related matters, it would be helpful if you spelled out abbreviations like CIS, which is also a commonly used abbreviation for Citizenship and Immigration Services (the former INS).
Why are you cherry-picking L.A. County, which is far from representative of the situation in the U.S. as a whole?
You know what would go a long way toward supporting your point? A nationwide study, conducted by an impartial organization using statistically valid research techniques, that provided even partial backing for your allegation that immigrants increase crime. So, do you have one up your sleeve somewhere?