Immigrants, minorities and anybody who opposes racism should celebrate Fox News’ decision to part ways with Tucker Carlson, the extreme right-wing television host who drew huge audiences by spreading conspiracy theories that Latin American migrants are ruining America.
The big question now is whether Fox News, presidential hopeful Donald Trump and other Republican hopefuls will continue perpetuating the lie that undocumented Latin American immigrants are driving up U.S. crime rates, spreading diseases and causing all kinds of other terrible problems.
Carlson’s nightly dose of xenophobia drew huge audiences by picking isolated examples of crimes committed by undocumented migrants and presenting them as a massive national scourge. In 2018, Carlson claimed that mass immigration was also making the United States “poorer and dirtier.” However, it’s a fact that the United States needs more — not fewer — immigrants.
Carlson’s sensationalist claim that Latin American undocumented migrants are driving up crime rates, much like Trump’s 2016 statement that Mexican migrants are “bringing crime” and “are rapists,” is simply not true. Several studies show that undocumented immigrants commit far fewer crimes than U.S. citizens.
A multi-year study of crime rates in Texas showed that undocumented immigrants have “substantially lower crime rates than native-born citizens and legal immigrants.
“The study, based on data from the Texas Department of Public Safety, found that “U.S.-born citizens are over two times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and over four times more likely to be arrested for property crimes”.
What’s more, the United States desperately needs more immigrants to reduce work shortages, help fight inflation and pay taxes to maintain its growing numbers of retirees.
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