Thank you, Crime Prevention Research Center, John R. Lott Jr, and RealClearInvestigations. But what took you so long?

This ridiculous-on-its-face fake statistic started being prominently wielded by Democrats and progressives in 2024: “Statistics show that [“immigrants”/”undocumented aliens”/”migrants”] are less likely to commit crimes than American citizens.” Fortunately, for a statistic that sounded dubious from the second it was first claimed, the rationalization was unpersuasive even if it had been true. Ethics Alarms swatted this intellectually dishonest talking point away several times, pointing out that crimes committed by individuals here illegally should never have been committed at all because the perpetrators should never have been in a position to commit them. Such crimes are all the direct result of U.S. government negligence, incompetence, or deliberate failure to enforce existing immigration laws. A single murder, rape or other crime committed by an illegal immigrant is still one too many, and inexcusable.

Stupid, lazy and intellectually dishonest as the claim was (because the progressive hive mind it sprung from is…oh, never mind, you know), Axis propagandists and your deluded Facebook friends grabbed onto it like it was a piece of floating debris left after their ship sank. The lie was repeated over and over again, and confirmation bias took over. It never made any sense. Why would such a statistic be true? How could it be true? Oh, I know! It was was true because the illegals sneaking across our borders are such inherently good, noble and well-intentioned people simply seeking a better life for their children.

Sure.

Again, the fake statistic never made sense, and the reason is that it was always a statistic dishonestly contrived to salvage a weak position, just like so many anti-gun statistics, the claim that 50% of all marriages end in divorce, and my personal favorite, the “women earn only 70% of what men earn for the same jobs” lie.

Finally, over at RealClearInvestigations, this weaponized nonsense has been decisively debunked. Read the whole report from John Lott, President of the Crime Prevention Research Center, but the conclusion is summarized by this:

“A review of the available data…shows that the criminal records of millions of migrants – the ones President-elect Trump vows to prioritize for deportation – remain unknown due to illegal crossings, lax enforcement, and lax data collection by federal and “sanctuary” jurisdictions.  In addition, an analysis of the available statistics…suggests that the crime rate of noncitizens is vastly understated. A separate …analysis based on estimates developed by the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) suggests that crime by illegal aliens who entered the U.S. by July 21, 2024 cost the country some $166.5 billion. These criminals disproportionately entered the U.S. during the Biden administration.”

The Washington Examiner adds: “The cost of crime from 662,000 criminal illegal migrants sought for deportation has been pegged at three times the much-hyped price of President-elect Donald Trump’s “mass deportation” plan.”

Of course. It should have been broadcast far and wide long ago. Meanwhile, I’m setting the clock to measure how many hours, days, week or months it takes for all those “hard-working” reporters this hack extolled, who only seek “the truth” in the news media, to finally report the debunking of the lie they helped advance.

The clock starts….NOW.