Fox & Friends still cherry-picking crime stats to bash immigrants

[Derechos]

Source: Media Matters

November 18, 2010 10:48 am ET by Justin Berrier

This morning, Fox & Friends hosted a segment on the effects of Prince William County, Virginia's "strict immigration enforcement policy," by cherry-picking from a recently released report on the policy to claim that it has worked to reduce crime because of a reduction in reported assaults and hit-and-runs.

However, the study itself concluded that "we find that the policy has not affected most types of crime in Prince William County, in large part because illegal immigrants account for only a small percent of arrests overall and a small to modest share of offenders for most types of crime." They go on to note that about 70% of "arrests of illegal immigrants were for just three specific offenses: public drunkenness, driving while intoxicated, and driving without a license." They also "caution" that "some of" the drop in assault rates "may also have been due to a reduction in reporting of assaults by illegal immigrants (and perhaps legal immigrants as well).

The county's ordinance was passed in 2007 (and later modified in 2008), and it directs County Police Officers, when they arrest people, to "inquire into the citizenship or immigration status of the detained person if there is probably cause to believe such person is in violation of federal immigration law and when such inquiry will not expand the duration of the detention." Despite having operated quietly for a number of years, the ordinance gained national prominence last summer due to its similarity to the Arizona immigration law SB1070.



http://mediamatters.org/blog/201011180008