The Wall Street Journal describes the fall in violent crime in major US cities between 2008 and 2009.
Violent crime in Los Angeles hit its lowest level in more than half a century last year, one of a growing number of U.S. cities reporting its streets were remarkably safe in 2009.Washington, D.C., finished the year with 143 killings, the lowest tally in the nation's capital since 1966. San Francisco reported 45 homicides last year, its lowest in 48 years. New York, Chicago, Boston and Dallas also reported dramatic year-over-year declines in 2009 compared with 2008.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Wednesday there had been 314 homicides in 2009 -- the lowest number of killings since 1967, when there were 281. In 2005, 489 people were killed in the city. Los Angeles also saw declines in rapes, robberies and assaults in 2009, compared with the previous year.
The Cato Institute says that these drops in crime are in spite of illegal immigration.
One of the more common complaints I hear about illegal immigration is that low-skilled workers from Mexico and Central America allegedly bring with them a wave of crime and incarceration expenses, especially to southern California.Those complaints are hard to square with the mounting evidence that immigrants, even low-skilled, illegal immigrants, are no more prone to commit crimes than native-born Americans. The latest data point comes from Los Angeles, where the Wall Street Journal reports this morning: “Violent crime in Los Angeles hit its lowest level in more than half a century last year, one of a growing number of U.S. cities reporting its streets were remarkably safe in 2009.”
More on the benefits of immigration. There's no doubt that immigration in general is a great boon for America. I've only got two objections to the status quo:
1. The majority of immigration is now completely unmonitored and uncontrolled. People who immigrate illegally undermine the democratic institutions that make our country great. We need to reform our immigration system so that we encourage immigration by the world's best and brightest, rather than turning them away and tacitly allowing in a random assortment of people who just happen to live close to our borders.
2. Those of us who are Americans now need to cultivate a culture of assimilation and self-sufficiency for those who aspire to become Americans. Our massive welfare state distorts our economy and demotivates the hardest workers among us, many of whom are immigrants. Our infatuation with multiculturalism weakens our American fabric and perniciously robs immigrants of what they came to America for in the first place. The last thing we need is a "guest worker" program -- anyone who comes to America should be encouraged to become a citizen and to assimilate with our culture.
Interesting post. Coincidentally, some of my best friends in Brazil and I have been having a conversation about these topics over the past few days over email. I sent them the links you post above, and I might send them a link to this page too.
I agree with everything you say, until near the end...
"Those of us who are Americans now need to cultivate a culture of assimilation and self-sufficiency for those who aspire to become Americans."
... up to and including that part. But then...
"Our massive welfare state distorts our economy and demotivates the hardest workers among us, many of whom are immigrants."
Are people really demotivated by high taxes? Really really? I have a hard time imagining someone thinking "I was going to invest in this, create this business, and have my company move into this new area... but because the government will tax my profits, I'm just not gonna bother". Instead of making 10 million, they'd make 5 million. Cry me a river.
"Our infatuation with multiculturalism ... perniciously robs immigrants of what they came to America for in the first place."
I agree that immigrants (and other minorities) should do a better job of assimilating, because the consequences of not assimilating are alienation and prejudice, an "us vs. them" mindset. But how exactly does multiculturalism "rob immigrants of what they came to America for"? Heck, some immigrants came to America knowing that they'd be able to live in an enclave of people from their country and not have to assimilate at all!
And I'm not sure that multiculturalism weakens America. It makes America less united, sure, but it also inserts more values and points of view into the Darwinian marketplace of ideas. If Americans (and immigrants) were better about finding and taking the best values from each culture, rather than in clinging to the whole package of values that they grew up with, we'd probably make more progress faster and be more united. The problem is that values get stuck into packages, and these packages are seen as a part of a person's identity. In my experience, that is more true in the US than in other countries, and it makes the different groups in the US more divided than the different groups in other countries. (Except for conservative Muslims, who are also very big into that kind of identity and alienation and being a separate group, wherever they migrate to).
"The last thing we need is a "guest worker" program -- anyone who comes to America should be encouraged to become a citizen and to assimilate with our culture."
For the same reasons that companies have contractors - people who are relatively cheap and who are easy to get rid of when times are less prosperous - why shouldn't America have "guest workers"? I don't see why the idea is inherently bad.
Taxes do appear to make a difference.
Assimilation: America definitely should "learn" from our immigrant groups, and there's no doubt that American culture is in constant evolution. I do believe though that we should all be moving towards that mean, rather than building isolated enclaves of our historical homelands.
Guest workers: Ugh, I just don't like it. It's too much like building a permanent, disposable underclass of servants who you exploit when desired and then dismiss.