海角大神

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Samantha Laine Perfas: This is Charis Kubrin, a professor at the University of California, Irvine. Charis studies the link between immigration and crime.

Sam:聽Charis鈥檚 students are not alone when it comes to these misperceptions. Many politicians still run on a 鈥渢ough on crime鈥� approach to immigration. And policies continue to be put in place to catch and deport unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. and reduce immigration into the country. The justification is often to keep Americans safe.听

But the stereotype of the dangerous immigrant鈥� that鈥檚 a perception gap.

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Sam:聽I鈥檓 Samantha Laine Perfas and this is "Perception Gaps: Locked Up," by 海角大神.

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厂补尘:听Welcome back to Season 2 of the series. In this season, we鈥檙e taking an in-depth look at mass incarceration. So if you haven鈥檛 yet, we encourage you to go back and listen to our two previous episodes 鈥� we look at the history of the U.S. prison system, and the role race plays in criminal justice. You can find all our material, including Season 1, at csmonitor.com/perceptiongaps.

In June 2019, a Gallup Poll found that 聽of Americans said immigration is making crime worse in the U.S.

But data show that鈥檚 not true. Research consistently finds that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.听

In 2019, for example, that immigrants with and without documentation both have a much lower incarceration rate than Americans born in the U.S. published in 2018 in the journal Criminology found that unauthorized immigration does not increase violent crime. , by researchers at the University of California, Davis, showed that increasing deportations in areas with a lot of unauthorized immigrants didn鈥檛 reduce local crime rates.听

It's true that many people come to the U.S. illegally. But if we're going to resolve the tough questions surrounding our immigration system, it's important that we don't equate "immigrant" 鈥� even "unauthorized immigrant" 鈥� with "criminal."

In this episode, we鈥檒l look at why this perception matters, the policies that have resulted from it, and the impact on families, communities, and the criminal justice system.听

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First, let鈥檚 go back to Charis Kubrin. She made it pretty clear to us that the research we mentioned about crime and immigration 鈥� those are just the latest findings. Criminologists have done variations of these studies for years.

Sam:聽But, according to Charis, the one factor that really stands out is fear.听

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Sam:聽When allowed to dominate rhetoric and drive policy, fear can have immediate consequences. It feels like a long time ago now, but we saw this at the beginning of 2020.听

[Audio clip from ABC News:聽鈥�...the top Iranian general has been killed in an airstrike..鈥漖

[Audio clip from CBS This Morning:聽鈥�...is a dramatic escalation in the confrontation between the U.S. and Iran鈥︹�漖

In early January, ordered the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani via drone strike. It was a response, , to 鈥榓n escalating series of attacks鈥� by Iran. After that, political tensions between the two countries surged.

Dozens of Iranians and Iranian Americans 鈥� many coming from vacation or work trips 鈥� by the Department of Homeland Security along the border with Canada. Some even though they had.

Sam:聽This is Hoda Katebi, a writer and activist who support for those students.

Sam:聽For Hoda, the situation felt personal. As the daughter of Iranian immigrants, she was often regarded with prejudice and fear in her hometown.

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Sam:聽The Trump administration has been aggressive on immigration enforcement, and the president鈥檚 rhetoric immigrants and crime. But 鈥� and this is an important 鈥榖ut鈥� 鈥� President Trump is far from the first politician to draw a line between who belongs here and who doesn鈥檛.听聽

Sam:聽Muzaffar has worked on immigration policy issues for decades. He says that Americans have been trying to keep certain people from coming here 鈥� basically since the country was founded.听

Sam:聽For example, in the 1800s.

Sam:聽Muzaffar says that no matter who the new arrivals were, the message was always some variation of: 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not like us. They鈥檙e tainting our values and culture. They don鈥檛 belong.鈥�

Sam:聽In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the .听

[Audio clip from KCTS9, President Lyndon B. Johnson: 鈥�...that those who seek refuge here in America will find it.鈥漖聽

The law was supposed to make U.S. immigration policy more racially equitable, in part by that were biased toward immigrants from northern and western Europe. Over time, this law of the entire country.

Sam:聽This history of racist attitudes toward people coming into the country helps explain why the stereotype of the dangerous immigrant is so persistent. But race is only part of the story.听聽

In previous episodes, we talked about how the 1980s and 鈥�90s saw an unprecedented expansion of our prisons and jails as a result of 鈥渢ough on crime鈥� laws. Those ideas also .听

The , for example, increased border patrol and made it illegal to hire unauthorized immigrants. And as the Cold War raged, national security 鈥� and the security of American jobs for Americans 鈥� became the basis for calls to restrict immigration.听聽

[Action News clip:聽鈥�...Good evening. Politicians from several states tonight are sharply criticizing President Carter鈥檚 handling of the Cuban refugee problem. The governor of Texas, Bill Clemens, says the president has literally opened the floodgates鈥︹�漖

The Clinton administration also on immigration in the 鈥�90s, as Mexico faced a recession that sent thousands of people north to find work.听

[Audio clip from CNN, President Bill Clinton: 鈥�...in this country are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. That鈥檚 why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more. By hiring twice as many border guards. By deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before鈥︹�漖

Then, after 9/11, the Bush administration created the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Billions of dollars went into militarizing the border.听

[Audio clip from C-SPAN, President George W. Bush speech: 鈥淲e got to strengthen security along our borders to stop people from entering illegally. In other words, we got to stop people from coming here in the first place.鈥漖

And under President Obama, the U.S. deported from the country than at any other time period.听 聽

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These policies went a long way toward cementing, in the minds of the public, that crime and immigration go hand in hand 鈥� even though they don鈥檛. The 2008 recession didn鈥檛 help, as millions of suddenly unemployed Americans looked for someone to blame.听

Sam:聽This is Jonathan Metzl, a professor of sociology and psychiatry at Vanderbilt University. In 2019, he published a book called 鈥淒ying of Whiteness,鈥� about the consequences of white racial resentment.

Sam:聽In 2016, the political power of this idea became clear.听

[Audio montage, President Donald Trump: 鈥�.., they鈥檙e bringing crime, they鈥檙e rapists鈥︹�� 鈥�...are tonight, to threaten peaceful citizens鈥︹�� 鈥�... a great wall along the Southern border..鈥漖

Sam:聽That鈥檚 Muzaffar Chishti again, from the Migration Policy Institute. He says that while we鈥檝e seen other candidates run on that message in the past, they almost never made it beyond their primaries.听

Sam:聽聽So what does that playbook look like for those most affected by it? When the government is guided by leaders who have emphasized the idea that refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants are dangerous, how does that affect immigrants and the communities around them?聽

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Sam:聽We reached out to Laura because she is living and working at the center of our immigration debate right now. She was born and raised in South Texas, along the border with Mexico. For years she was an attorney for ICE, presenting 鈥� among other things 鈥� the government鈥檚 case against immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S. Now Laura works on the other side of the courtroom, defending the migrants she used to prosecute.听

My colleague Henry Gass, who covers Texas and the border for the Monitor, led the conversation with her.听

Sam:聽This was during the Obama administration. At the time, ICE was facing criticism over how it was handling a surge of unaccompanied children coming to the border from Central America.

Sam:聽Laura was never fully comfortable with her role at ICE. One of the last straws for her: a case that involved a woman seeking asylum from an African country where sexual violence was being used as a tool of war.听聽

厂补尘:听Laura left ICE just before the 2016 election. After President Trump won, he started turning his campaign promises into policy. Family separations happened more frequently under the 鈥渮ero tolerance鈥� policy . The Trump administration said it was necessary to of unauthorized immigrants coming to the border.

Sam:聽Before we hear more from Laura and Henry, I want to turn back briefly to Muzaffar Chishti at the Migration Policy Institute. In our conversation, he brought up some important misperceptions about illegal immigration, which is often at the core of our ideas about the border and who comes through there.听

Sam:聽According to the Migration Policy Institute, came to the U.S. as visitors or temporary residents in 2018.

Sam:聽And that鈥檚 not including , mostly families from Central America, who come to the U.S. legally seeking asylum. And yet:

Sam:聽So how does that math work? Who are the majority of these immigrants, and why are they coming without the right papers?聽

Sam:聽To put this in context, show that , pre-COVID-19, openings for low-skill jobs 鈥� like health care aides, janitors, and farm workers 鈥� over the past decade. But of the 1 million green cards per year that we issue to new permanent residents, are available for those workers. Other visa categories for low-wage and seasonal workers, , also either fall short or are so tangled with red tape .听聽

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Sam:聽When immigrants come to America,聽especially poor immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, they often encounter a legal system that both reflects and is deeply tied to our system of criminal justice. Here鈥檚 my colleague Henry Gass again, with the lawyer Laura Pe帽a.

Sam:聽On any given year, around are locked up in American detention facilities. Which is a big number, and numbers like that are important in these conversations. But 鈥� and we brought this up in our previous episode 鈥� it鈥檚 just as important to remember that behind every statistic is a real person.听

Sam:聽Thanks for listening, and we hope you鈥檒l join us for future episodes. Our next episode will take you on the ground 鈥� to Evanston, Wyoming, a town that wrestled with the decision of whether or not to build an immigration detention center. If you鈥檇 like to stay in the loop, sign up for our newsletter at csmonitor.com/perceptiongaps. We鈥檒l include show notes, videos, additional articles, and behind the scenes takes from the series 鈥� such as a story about a couple who got married on a cross-border bridge, where Henry first met Laura Pena. Again, you can sign up for it at csmonitor.com/perceptiongaps.听

This episode was produced and hosted by me, Samantha Laine Perfas. It was co-reported with Henry Gass and co-produced with Jessica Mendoza, with additional edits by Clay Collins, Noelle Swan, Yvonne Zipp, Dave Scott, Em Okrepkie, Jules Struck, Lindsey McGinnis, and Kelsey Evans. Sound design by Morgan Anderson and Noel Flatt, with additional audio elements from KCTS9, Action News, CNN, Business Insider, and C-SPAN.

This podcast was produced by 海角大神, copyright 2020.

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