Fox News and Washington Times stories on our new research on crime by Illegal Aliens

Fox News and the Washington Times’ Stephen Dinan have news stories on our new research on crime by illegal aliens.

From Fox News:

A report based on conviction data suggests that illegal immigrants in Arizona commit crimes at twice the rate of other residents.

According to the report from the Crime Prevention Research Center, illegal immigrants between ages 15 and 35 account for 3 percent of Arizona’s population but make up approximately 8 percent of the prison population, the Washington Times reported.

John R. Lott Jr., CPRC president and the report’s author, said the crimes of which these illegal immigrants were convicted tended to be more serious. His findings challenge previous assertions that illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes.

Previous studies on the topic usually don’t compare conviction data between legal and illegal populations, Lott said. . . .

From the Washington Times:

The crime rate among illegal immigrants in Arizona is twice that of other residents, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday, citing a new report based on conviction data.

The report, from the Crime Prevention Research Center, used a previously untapped set of data from Arizona that detailed criminal convictions and found that illegal immigrants between 15 and 35 are less than 3 percent of the state’s population, but nearly 8 percent of its prison population.

And the crimes they were convicted of were, on the whole, more serious, said John R. Lott Jr., the report’s author and president of the research center.

His findings also challenge the general narrative that immigrants commit fewer crimes. Those past studies usually don’t look at legal versus illegal populations, Mr. Lott said.

Mr. Lott said the Arizona data is able to peek behind that curtain, and the differences between the populations were stark. . . .

Among nearly 4,000 first- and second-degree murder convictions, undocumented immigrants accounted for nearly 13 percent — significantly higher than their percentage of the population. Legal immigrants, by contrast, were less than 1 percent of convicts. Native-born made up the rest. . . .

The rest of the article is available here.

From the Washington Times:

Progressives habitually characterize DACA recipients as exemplary residents, valedictorians and heroic soldiers in the American armed forces. Economist John Lott recently observed that while “Dreamers” make up about two percent of Arizona’s population, they make up eight percent of the state’s prisoners. . . .