How do crime rates compare between undocumented immigrants and US-born citizens by offense type?
Executive summary
Multiple peer-reviewed and government-funded analyses find that undocumented immigrants have substantially lower arrest, conviction, and incarceration rates than U.S.-born citizens across major offense categories: violent, drug, and property crimes. For Texas (2012–2018), undocumented people were arrested at less than half the rate for violent and drug crimes and about one-quarter the rate for property crimes compared with native-born citizens [1] [2].
1. What the best direct data show: Texas as a rare, granular case
The most direct, individual-level evidence comes from Texas Department of Public Safety records used in a study published in PNAS and summarized by the National Institute of Justice: for 2012–2018, undocumented arrestees had the lowest felony offending rates of the groups examined; U.S.-born citizens were over twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes, about 2.5 times as likely for drug crimes, and more than four times as likely for property crimes relative to undocumented immigrants [2] [1].
2. Consistency across multiple research outlets and summaries
Independent outlets and research centers report similar conclusions. The NIJ summary highlights “less than half” the arrest rate for violent and drug crimes and “one quarter” for property crimes for undocumented people versus native-born citizens [1]. University reporting (e.g., UW–Madison, Northeastern) and policy organizations (American Immigration Council, Brennan Center) echo that immigrants—including undocumented immigrants—are generally less likely to commit crimes than the U.S.-born [3] [4] [5] [6].
3. Scope and caveats: arrest, conviction, incarceration are different measures
Available studies use arrests, convictions, or incarceration as outcome measures; each has limits. The Texas study used arrest records that included immigration status, allowing direct rate comparisons [2]. Other national studies rely on incarceration or conviction data because immigration status is easier to observe there; those also find lower rates for immigrants overall but may not distinguish undocumented people in every dataset [7] [8].
4. Offense-by-offense headline numbers
Across the best-available comparisons: violent crime arrest rates — undocumented < U.S.-born by roughly a factor of 2 or more; drug crime arrest rates — undocumented arrested at roughly 40% of U.S.-born rates (about 2.5× higher for U.S.-born); property crime arrest rates — the largest gap, with U.S.-born several times higher (about 4×) than undocumented in the Texas data [2] [1].
5. Why researchers get these results: leading explanations and open questions
Researchers point to selection effects (recent immigrants tend to be first-generation and may have lower crime propensity), social networks, and labor-market incentives as possible reasons undocumented immigrants show lower offending rates; authors stress that the data cannot fully explain causation and that further work is needed [3] [2]. The NIJ and university summaries acknowledge they cannot definitively identify mechanisms behind the differences [1] [3].
6. Geographic and time limitations: Texas may not represent all of the U.S.
The most granular comparisons come from Texas because that state records immigration status at arrest; other states and national datasets often lack that direct tag. Authors and policy analysts note that the Texas findings are robust to several checks, but national generalization requires care because local enforcement practices, demographic composition, and recording standards vary [2] [9].
7. Competing findings and degrees of agreement
While most cited sources converge on the conclusion that immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than the U.S.-born [5] [6] [7], some difference exists in magnitudes across studies (for example, Cato’s Texas conviction analysis and other analyses report different percentage gaps). Reporting outlets note methodological differences—arrest vs. conviction vs. incarceration—and that some high-profile individual cases drive public perception contrary to aggregate data [8] [6].
8. Policy implications and possible hidden agendas
Authors of the Texas study argue that aggressive removal programs aimed at reducing crime are unlikely to deliver promised effects because undocumented people already have lower offending rates [2]. Advocacy groups citing these findings (e.g., American Immigration Council, Brennan Center) use them to counter political messaging that links immigration to rising crime, while some think tanks emphasize different metrics or contexts; readers should note these institutional perspectives when interpreting summaries [5] [6] [8].
9. What the available sources do not settle
Available sources do not fully explain causal mechanisms linking immigration status to crime propensity, nor do they offer uniformly national arrest-rate breakdowns that replicate Texas’s immigration-status coding across all states [2] [9]. They also do not settle how enforcement policy changes (e.g., Secure Communities) alter reporting or arrest patterns in ways that might bias comparisons [3].
10. Bottom line for readers
Direct, peer-reviewed and government-reviewed analyses agree that undocumented immigrants in the datasets studied have lower rates of arrest, conviction, and incarceration than U.S.-born citizens across violent, drug, and property offense categories, with the most detailed Texas study showing U.S.-born rates roughly 2× higher for violent crime, 2.5× for drug crime, and over 4× for property crime [2] [1]. Readers should weigh that evidence against geographic limitations and measurement differences highlighted in the same reporting [2] [3].