How many rapes or sexual crimes did undocumented immigrants commit vs us born
Executive summary
The best peer‑reviewed, source‑by‑source evidence available shows undocumented immigrants are arrested for sexual assault at substantially lower rates than U.S.‑born citizens—roughly half as often in the Texas study that directly records immigration status at arrest—while legal (documented) immigrants in that analysis had higher sexual‑assault arrest rates than other immigrant groups (Texas study) [1] [2]. National reporting compiled by research and advocacy organizations reaches the same broad conclusion that immigrants, including the undocumented, are not driving increases in violent or sexual crime, but the sources do not provide a single, definitive national tally of “how many” sexual crimes were committed by each group [3] [4] [5].
1. What the most rigorous study with immigration‑status data actually measured
A unique seven‑year dataset from the Texas Department of Public Safety—used by a PNAS paper and summarized by the National Institute of Justice—matched arrests to immigration status and found undocumented arrestees had the lowest offending rates across assault, sexual assault, robbery and other felonies; for sexual assault specifically, undocumented immigrants were roughly half as likely to be arrested as native‑born U.S. citizens [1] [2] [3]. This is a rate comparison (arrests per population estimate), not a simple headcount, and the authors ran sensitivity tests showing the pattern held across alternative population estimates and offense classifications [6].
2. How “how many” differs from “how often” — limits of the available counts
None of the supplied sources offers a clean national count comparing the raw number of rapes or sexual‑crime convictions committed by undocumented versus U.S.‑born people; the strongest published work reports arrest rates in Texas and national trend analyses that compare rates or incarceration, not an absolute nationwide enumeration [1] [7] [5]. Therefore the most defensible factual claim from these sources is comparative rates—undocumented populations are arrested and convicted for sexual and violent offenses at lower rates than U.S.‑born populations in the studies cited—rather than producing a single numeric national total from 2012–2018 or today [3] [7].
3. Important methodological caveats that shape interpretation
Arrest rates are an imperfect proxy for offenses committed because they reflect policing practices, reporting rates, and prosecutorial decisions; convictions differ from arrests and may produce different ratios (the Texas authors and OJP note robustness checks substituting convictions where possible) [6] [1]. The Texas work is geographically specific; national summaries from advocacy groups and journalists use FBI UCR or incarceration data to reach similar conclusions but acknowledge differences in data coverage and population estimation [4] [5] [7]. Critics argue that immigration enforcement itself changes who remains in the country—meaning comparisons are not strictly apples‑to‑apples—an objection raised by the Center for Immigration Studies highlighting an implicit policy lens that can shape interpretations [8].
4. Other research and advocacy summaries that corroborate the pattern
Multiple independent analyses and fact sheets—from the Migration Policy Institute, American Immigration Council, NPR reporting, and policy researchers—conclude immigrants are less likely to commit violent and sexual crimes than U.S.‑born individuals, with immigrant incarceration and arrest rates lower in recent decades; these sources reinforce the Texas study’s direction of effect even if they differ on metrics used [7] [4] [5]. Libertarian‑leaning research (Cato/Reason) likewise reports lower conviction rates for undocumented and legal immigrants relative to natives, underscoring cross‑ideological agreement on the comparative finding though not on policy implications [9] [10].
5. Bottom line — what can be stated with confidence and what remains unknown
With confidence: in the best available jurisdictional study that directly measures immigration status at arrest, undocumented immigrants in Texas were arrested for sexual assault at roughly half the rate of U.S.‑born citizens, and multiple national summaries and studies echo the broader finding that immigrants are less likely to commit sexual and violent crimes than native‑born Americans [1] [3] [4]. Not established by these sources: a single, authoritative national count of how many rapes or sexual crimes were committed by undocumented versus U.S.‑born people; producing that would require harmonized national arrest/conviction data linked to verified immigration status and consistent population denominators—data the provided reporting does not supply [1] [6].