U.S. Immigration: Myths and Facts About Undocumented Immigrants

Fact sheet by the American Immigration Council that aims to debunk the myth that immigrants contribute to crime by comparing crime data to demographic data from 1980 to 2022.

Analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute, that looks at the research regarding the relationship between immigration and crime and shows that the narrative of a "migrant crime wave" that politicians and certain media outlets have latched on to is incorrect.

NPR story that was heard on the program All Things Considered that looked at the claims of the Republican rebuttal of the 2024 State of the Union address regarding a high profile murder case and the incorrect generalization that undocumented immigrants lead to higher crime rates.

The Marshall Project is an American nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. This analysis looks at data collected between 2007 and 2016. An analysis derived from this new data is now able to help address this question, suggesting that growth in illegal immigration does not lead to higher local crime rates.

A 2018 New York Times article that looked research carried by a large collaboration of researchers that compared immigration rates with crime rates for 200 metropolitan areas over the last several decades.

PBS news story that looks at 4 myths about hoe immigrants affect the U.S. Economy.

A report created by the American Immigration Council that looks at the economic impact carrying out mass deportations.

Contracts with ICE continue to make up a significant amount of revenue for private prison corporations like the GEO Group and CoreCivic. In 2022, the GEO Group made $1.05 billion in revenue from ICE contracts alone, or 43.9 percent of its total revenue ($2.4 billion). This includes 17 percent ($408 million) on programs involving electronic monitoring of immigrants.

NYT article that looks at the surveillance technology being employed by the Trump administration and how big tech is profiting by the use of this technology.

A report by the Center for Migration Studies outlining the negative impacts of a mass deportation policy for undocumented immigrants.

A short article by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants that looks at impact that restrictive and punitive immigration polices have on the mental health of immigrants.

An open access article by the the Annual Review of Public Health that looks at the health of undocumented Latinx immigrants and the different factors that play a role.

A study in Psychiatry Research, a peer-reviewed journal, that examines the mental health impact on migrants living in limbo without secure residency or citizenship in high-income countries. Insecure status was linked to worse mental health outcomes compared to those with secure status.

This study published in the Journal of Migration and Health reviewed the methodology and findings of 44 peer-reviewed studies on psychosocial risk factors associated with mental health outcomes among undocumented immigrants in the United States

Research examining the effects of traumatic events on undocumented Latinx immigrants often focuses on assessing posttraumatic stress disorder or general psychological distress, which may obscure the field's understanding of how trauma exposure impacts other common mental health disorders (e.g., anxiety, depression). This study sought to assess the cumulative, individual, and timing effects of immigration‐related traumatic events on anxiety and depressive symptoms among undocumented Latinx immigrants.