In\na new book, author A.K. Sandoval-Strausz asserts that immigration is\nrevitalizing U.S. cities, making them \u201cdynamic, stable and safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In \u201cBarrio America: How Latino Immigrants Saved the American City,\u201d<\/a> the Penn State University professor singles out Hispanic newcomers for bringing \u201ccharacter\u201d and \u201cauthenticity\u201d back to neglected neighborhoods, while providing a laboring class of \u201chomebuilders, childcare workers, building maintenance staff and restaurant cooks, servers and busboys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the\nenthused professor takes a bridge too far when he claims that America\u2019s influx\nof immigrants yields lower crime rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Citing Dallas\u2019s hardscrabble Oak Cliff\ndistrict, Sandoval-Strausz declares that crime dropped as immigrants poured in\nover the past three decades. But did it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In August (after \u201cBarrio America\u201d went to press) hoodline.com<\/a> reported that crime in Oak Cliff was \u201cup considerably.\u201d A neighborhood rating site<\/a> gives Oak Cliff a solid \u201cF\u201d on crime. Citywide, Dallas (where 24.4 percent of residents are immigrants vs. 13.4 percent nationally) is on track to record its highest homicide rate<\/a> in a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this year, FAIR debunked<\/a> the oft-repeated but tendentious narrative that immigrants commit less crime. This week, the government reported that aliens were convicted of 5,149 criminal offenses<\/a> in Fiscal 2019. Crimes ranged from illegal re-entry to drunken driving to murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\nis the nature of crime to fluctuate over time, and for a variety of causes.\nPercentage shifts can appear dramatic when rates are calculated on a relatively\nsmall population base like Oak Cliff\u2019s. All of which makes Sandoval-Strausz\u2019s\neffervescent claims both ephemeral and misleading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n