Is the U.S.’s hatred of immigrants dividing, Hypocritical, or both?
By: Riley Duignan
Donald J. Trump has sparked a big fire of hatred towards immigrants and immigrant families, even calling them “animals” during a white house meeting with multiple Californian politicians in May of 2018. And in August 23, 2024, in a presidential campaign statement, “Savage, illegal alien criminals who have been raping, pillaging, and killing our cities and our towns.” He has made countless claims that immigrants are being “savage” or “criminals,” but can he really back it up?
History of immigration in the U.S
Europeans had continuously ventured into lands of North America, some as early as 1000 AD, but never began to make permanent settlements until around the 1490s, when adventurers like Christopher Columbus and John Cabot would begin settlements and (European) discovery of North American land, such as the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, and mainly southern Canada. In 1513 spain took over much of Florida, being the first European country to finally claim parts of modern day united states. Later, in 1607, Jamestown, Virginia, became the first permanent English settlement in modern day united states. Though mainly English, many French, Spanish, and Dutch settlers also began to colonize and build permanent settlements further into the mainland. Though historians are still challenged by this question, it is estimated that there were around 1-8 million total native americans in just modern-day U.S. territory in the early 1500s, but by the 1800s, it is estimated that there were fewer than 600,000 native americans in U.S territory by 1800.
The definition of the word/person “Immigrant” is “a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.” All of the European settlers coming to North American land as permanent residents came as immigrants. Because of the absence of white populations in North America before colonization, every white person is related to an immigrant.
Even after the U.S was officially declared a country in 1776, millions of immigrants from countries of europe, asia, and mexico were coming for as long as the U.S has been a country. And during the industrial era, the United States relied on immigrant labor for rapid industrialization in architecture, transportation, factories, etc. By 1920, immigrants and their children made up around half of the manufacturing workers.
Donald Trump and his influence
Trump’s notorious campaign strategy and belief is his anti-immigrant rhetoric, never failing to state that immigrants are the main source of crime in the U.S., or even saying that immigrants are poisoning U.S. blood. During his first term in office (2017-2021), he made around 472 administrative changes to the immigration system. In his second term, Trump has attempted to make more administrative changes to the immigration system through things such as attempting to end birthright citizenship, beginning mass deportations, and enforcing ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in all U.S. states to detain illegal immigrants.
Current statistics
Around 27-28% of the U.S population is made up of immigrants and their U.S born child, making around ¼ of the country living with an immigrant parent or family member. In total, this is over 90 million people.
In addition, in 2022, it was reported that around 44% of the immigrant population was Hispanic or of Latino descent. People with Hispanic/Latino descent are not only racially profiled and stereotyped, but they’re also actively a disproportionate target of ICE.
In a recent UCLA report, it was estimated that around 70-90% of ICE arrests are of people of Hispanic/Latino descent. The majority (73.6%) of victims of ICE detainment don’t have a criminal record, making it even more unjust. ICE has been notorius to racially profiling and arresting based on political priorities or influence; due to this, over 170 U.S citziens have been detained and held by ICE.
But is Trump right?
Studies show that immigrants tend to have lower crime rates and represent fewer crimes than U.S.-born citizens. Only around 7% of undocumented immigrants actually have a criminal record, and from 1980 to 2022, as the crime rate went down by over 60%, immigrant populations more than doubled from around 6% (6.4) to almost 14% (13.9), according to the American Immigration Council, showing little to no correlation between the two. And according to a 2023 deep dive by the Cato Institute, they found that Native American-born citizens(U.S.-Born) had an incarceration rate of 1,221 per 100,000 U.S.-born citizens, while legal immigrants had an incarceration rate of 319 per 100,000 legal immigrants, and illegal immigrants had an incarceration rate of 613 per 100,000 illegal immigrants.
Another myth spread by anti immigration supporters is that immigrants, documented or not, don’t pay taxes. But, in 2023, immigrants in total paid around $651.9 billion in tax dollars, over $90 billion of that alone being from undocumented immigrants. There is no proof that the majority or all immigrants don’t pay taxes.
The rhetoric that immigrants are poisoning our country is implicit bias, racism, and favoritism. Hurtful stereotypes and myths that are believed by millions of Americans hurt the lives of immigrants in the U.S everyday, and have created heated and unsafe political climates for incoming and present immigrants. It is important we support the people who support us; nationality does not determine criminality or justify xenophobic behavior.
Sources
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/10/immigrants-taxes-map
https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/illegal-immigrant-incarceration-rates-2010-2023
Immigrants Do Not Commit More Crimes in the US, Despite Fearmongering
https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-03-13/immigrants-pay-192-of-taxes-in-the-united-states-more-than-650-billion.html
https://forumtogether.org/article/undocumented-immigrants-are-integral-to-our-nation/
Know Your Rights: FAQ on Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Executive Order
https://lulac.org/news/pr/LULAC_Denounces_President_Trumps_Remarks_Calling_Undocumented_Immigrants_Animals/
https://luskin.ucla.edu/ucla-report-finds-latino-arrests-by-ice-have-skyrocketed-under-the-trump-administrations-second-term#:~:text=%E2%80%9CArrests%20in%20Latino%20communities%20have%20increased%20sharply,just%20targeting%20the%20’worst%20of%20the%20worst’.%E2%80%9D
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/content/who-is-us-immigrant#:~:text=The%20Size%20of%20the%20Immigrant,from%20immigrants%20and%20their%20offspring.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2760060/#:~:text=In%20this%20study%2C%20we%20measure,of%20the%2020th%20century.