5 minPolitics
Senator Chris Murphy calls mass immigration a 'fake problem' in ICE dispute
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said the Trump administration is trying to solve a 'fake problem' by framing mass immigration as a public safety risk, arguing immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., pushed back Wednesday against the Trump administration's framing of mass immigration as a public safety threat, calling the idea a «fake problem» during an interview with the CT Mirror. The senator's remarks came in response to questions about recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests of parents at a bus stop in Danbury, Connecticut, which Murphy said were intended to «terrorize these little kids».
When asked what should be done about the broader immigration situation, Murphy argued that the administration is focused on the wrong issue. «The problem, according to the Trump administration, is a country that has been invaded, a country that is at risk physically because of the presence of people from other countries,» he said. «That is a fake problem. That is not a real problem.»
Murphy cited data showing that immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, commit crimes at lower rates than people born in the United States. «Nobody likes to hear this, but immigrants, first generation immigrants and undocumented immigrants both commit crimes at rates lower than natural-born Americans,» he said. «So if you want to live in a safe community, you are actually better off living in a community with people that just got to the United States of America.»
The senator did acknowledge that the U.S. immigration system frustrates Americans across the political spectrum. «When we have a system of immigration that appears lawless, that appears without rules,» he said, «that you can have your mom or dad or grandmother wait in line for years and years and years and then someone comes across the border who doesn't actually have a legal claim to stay in the U.S. and gets to be here for years. That's the problem we have to solve.»
Asked by a listener whether he would dismantle ICE as an institution, Murphy replied that people need to «tear down ICE and rebuild it,» adding that «this version of ICE should not remain or come back if Democrats control the presidency or Congress.» The senator has previously drawn scrutiny for his immigration stance, including comments that Democratic policy has «failed to deliver for the people we care about most, the undocumented Americans that are in this country.»
Daniel Di Martino, a Manhattan Institute fellow and Venezuelan-born economist, said Murphy's point about immigrant crime rates may be technically correct but noted that demographic differences skew the figures. Citing census data, he said that while over 2% of American-born residents aged 18 to 59 are imprisoned, only 0.75% of immigrant men are. He also noted that crime rates vary by country of origin, with Honduran immigrants having the highest imprisonment rate among immigrant groups at 1.7%, and Indian immigrants the lowest at barely 0.09%.
Di Martino added that the crime gap between immigrants and natives hides an important factor: immigrants who commit crimes tend to be deported and cannot reoffend. «Since most crimes are committed by career criminals who reoffend after release, non-citizens do not get as many chances to reoffend as native-born Americans,» he said. «This is a good thing and criminal non-citizens should be deported.»
Theo Wold, former assistant attorney general and former White House deputy assistant for domestic policy under Trump, disputed Murphy's claims. «There are no reliable statistics showing that illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes — and Democrats are the reason,» he said. «They have blocked efforts to record and report illegal immigrant crime for decades so they can spout pseudo-statistics like these, made up out of whole cloth.» Wold argued that illegal immigration is a real issue for ordinary Americans, citing both crime and economic displacement, and said Murphy should leave «the bubble of his donors' swanky mansions along Connecticut's Gold Coast» to see how illegal immigration has affected the country.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security also defended ICE, saying agents are focused on protecting the American public.
