Where is the immigrant crime in North Texas ‘border towns’?

In Reality check stories, Star-Telegram journalists dig deeper into questions of facts, consequences and liability. Read more. Story idea? [email protected].

A common refrain among people raising alarms about the border crisis is that every American city is a border city, meaning undocumented immigrants bring higher crime rates to communities far from the U.S.-Mexico border.

Keller Mayor Armin Mizani and Tarrant County GOP Chairman Bo French both told the Star-Telegram as much regarding border and immigration issues.

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The Star-Telegram contacted 25 police departments in Tarrant County, as well as the sheriff’s office, to ask how the immigration crisis has affected their communities.

No one could provide data or documentation showing that crime rates have increased in their communities due to undocumented immigrants.

Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn told the Star-Telegram that “foreigners in the community” are “having an impact on law enforcement, yes, having an impact on our schools, probably on our emergency rooms and our infrastructure.”

However, sheriff’s spokesman Robbie Hoy was unable to provide data to support the comments.

“Any influx of people into a community impacts all of these things and puts a strain on resources,” he said in an email exchange. “If we don’t know how many people are crossing our border illegally every day, it would be illogical to assume there is no strain on community resources.”

He was able to clarify Waybourn’s statement that the county has “several illegal aliens in jail for various types of crimes.”

At the end of March, there were 219 detainees on immigration bail, Hoy said. That number represents about 5% of the average prison population.

At a congressional hearing on the border “crisis” in April, Waybourn told lawmakers that violent crimes such as murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, assault and theft have all decreased in the past year.

None of the Tarrant County police chiefs who responded to the Star-Telegram’s question about how the “immigration crisis” has affected their communities could point to data or anecdotal evidence that immigrants had increased crime rates or had other significant impacts.

“I have no specific incidents involving illegal immigration in our day-to-day operations,” said Hurst Police Assistant Chief Billy Keadle.

White Settlement Police Chief Christopher Cook said in an email exchange that he was “not aware of any changes we have experienced locally” due to immigration.

A Crowley Police Department representative said the department has “no statistical data showing documented immigration problems.”

Blue Mound Police Chief Antonio Segura Jr. said he was in his first year on the job and was not aware of any “noticeable impact” in recent years.

“I can tell you, however, that our officers have not raised any concerns about the immigration crisis since I have been here,” he said in an email exchange.

In March, Southlake Mayor John Huffman told the Star-Telegram that it is “demonstrably true” that migrants are smuggling fentanyl into North Texas communities.

Huffman visited the U.S.-Mexico border with Keller Mayor Mizani in November. The lesson Mizani brought back to North Texas was that “every town in Texas and every town in America has now become a border town.”

The Star-Telegram asked for statistics on fentanyl arrests in Southlake. Police there have made five arrests for fentanyl possession since 2020.

Tarrant County law enforcement agencies could not provide data to support the narrative that undocumented immigrants cause crime because such data does not exist, said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council.

“If you look at the data, the data shows quite strongly – this is data specifically from the Texas prison system – that undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than US-born citizens, although at slightly higher rates than people who come through the legal avenue. immigration system,” he said. “So we know that there is really no connection between the increase in the number of migrants and spikes in crime.”

He cited the decline in crime rates in New York City as the immigrant population there rises.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has transported more than 100,000 migrants to New York City and other sanctuary cities since 2022 as part of his border initiative called Operation Lone Star.

Migrants have also been transported to Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles. All of these cities except Los Angeles have reported a decline in violent crime rates by 2024. The Los Angeles Police Department saw an increase in violent crimes in March, but the city saw a significant decline in 2023.

Reichlin-Melnick said the argument that one crime by undocumented immigrants is too much “has some force,” but ultimately misses the broader picture.

“Because undocumented immigrants commit crimes at lower rates, the more undocumented immigrants are in that area, the lower the overall crime rate will be, even though the raw crime rate might increase slightly,” he said. “They are not drivers of crime.”