Trump lies about crime by undocumented immigrants

NBC News - The Trump administration on Wednesday was all about crime committed by undocumented immigrants.

President Donald Trump met at the White House with the victims of crimes perpetrated by undocumented immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security championed increased arrests, and the Department of Justice called for the passage of a law that would up the penalties for undocumented immigrants who attempt to reenter the country.

The day’s events meshed well with Trump's campaign rhetoric that illegal immigration was a public safety issue, with criminals “roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens,” as he put it in one campaign speech.

There’s one catch: There's no evidence that undocumented immigrants commit more crime.

Politifact noted last year that there's no national database of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants or study that tracked the crimes they have committed. "The challenge in finding concrete numbers is due to a shortfall of data," Politifact said.

The number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. tripled between the 1990s and 2013, while violent crime declined 48% and property crime fell 41% over that period.

What's more, a slew of studies have found that immigrants as a whole — both legal and undocumented — commit less crime than native-born Americans.

One study in Criminology found that "violent crime rates tended to decrease as metropolitan areas experienced gains in their concentration of immigrants." A 2007 report by a pro-immigrant nonprofit, American Immigration Council, concluded that “for every ethnic group without exception, incarceration rates among young men are lowest for immigrants, even those who are the least educated.”

On the campaign trail, Trump, as quoted in the White House fact sheet, also vowed to "end the sanctuary cities that have resulted in so many needless deaths."