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What is the percentage of crime in the united states caused by illegal immagrants compared to US citizes
Executive summary
Available reporting and academic studies consistently find that immigrants — including unauthorized immigrants — commit crimes at lower rates than U.S.-born citizens; a Texas-based federal study found undocumented immigrants were arrested at less than half the rate of U.S.-born citizens for violent and drug crimes and about one-quarter the rate for property crimes [1] [2]. National- and state-level analyses show rising immigration shares coincided with long-term declines in crime and little to no positive correlation between immigrant population share and total crime rates [3] [4].
1. What the best available data actually measure — and what they don’t
Most available studies compare arrest, conviction, incarceration, or arrest-rate data by immigration status or birthplace; these are imperfect proxies for “percentage of crime caused by” any group because arrests reflect policing practices, reporting differences, and data availability [2] [4]. Texas is the only state that systematically records criminal arrests and convictions by immigration status, and federal researchers have relied heavily on that dataset to estimate differences in arrest rates between undocumented immigrants, lawful immigrants, and U.S.-born people [1] [2].
2. Headline finding: immigrants have lower offending and incarceration rates
Multiple reviews and studies conclude immigrants commit fewer crimes than the U.S.-born. Migration Policy Institute reports immigrants — including unauthorized immigrants — have lower criminality and that in places with established immigrant communities, increases in immigration sometimes coincide with declines in violent crime [1] [4]. A broader historical analysis found immigrants have had lower incarceration rates than the native-born since at least 1870, with immigrants 60% less likely to be incarcerated than the U.S.-born in one 2020 study cited by MPI [4].
3. Specific quantitative benchmarks researchers cite
The National Institute of Justice summary of the Texas-based analysis reports undocumented immigrants were arrested at less than half the rate of native-born citizens for violent and drug crimes and at roughly one-quarter the rate for property crimes [2]. Migration Policy Institute and other syntheses repeat these relative-rate findings when noting that unauthorized immigrants often show the lowest offending rates among groups compared [1] [4].
4. Where partisan narratives diverge from the research
Political claims that “illegal immigration drives crime” are prominent in some campaign messaging; however, academic and policy organizations like the American Immigration Council and Migration Policy Institute find no positive link between higher immigrant shares and higher crime rates, and in many analyses the opposite trend appears [3] [4]. Reporting that highlights large numbers of immigrants with prior convictions arrested by ICE (for example in ICE enforcement time windows) documents enforcement activity but does not, by itself, prove that immigrants are the primary drivers of broader crime trends [5] [6].
5. Limitations, uncertainties, and why precise “percentage caused by” is elusive
No single national dataset cleanly attributes a fixed percentage of all U.S. crime to “illegal immigrants” versus citizens; border-enforcement tallies and “criminal alien” counts use different definitions and may include foreign convictions or past records, and many datasets omit immigration status altogether [6] [1]. Arrest rates mix behavior with enforcement intensity and reporting differences; incarceration rates omit unsolved crimes and federal immigration removals; therefore claims giving a precise national percentage lack a single authoritative source in current reporting [2] [4].
6. Broader context and competing explanations
Researchers point to socioeconomic factors, demographic shifts, and labor-market effects to explain why immigrants often show lower criminality, and some studies suggest first‑generation immigrants fare better on several risk factors tied to offending [7]. Conversely, enforcement-focused agencies publish arrest and criminal‑alien statistics that emphasize convictions among noncitizens and are used in policy debates, leading to contrasting framings depending on organizational aims [6] [8].
7. Bottom line for practical interpretation
If your question seeks a simple national percentage of crime “caused by” illegal immigrants compared with U.S. citizens, available sources do not provide a single agreed-upon national percentage number; instead, high-quality studies and federal analyses consistently show undocumented immigrants have lower arrest and incarceration rates than U.S.-born citizens — e.g., under half the arrest rate for violent and drug crimes and about one-quarter for property crimes in a Texas-based federal study [2] — and national analyses find no correlation that higher immigrant shares raise crime rates [3] [4].
If you want, I can: (A) compile the specific numbers from the Texas study and the Migration Policy Institute summary into a short table, or (B) trace how CBP/ICE “criminal alien” counts differ methodologically from academic arrest-rate estimates.