Don’t ignore statistics on nationality of criminals

Letter date: 
Saturday, December 31, 2016
Letter publisher: 
The Bulletin
Letter author: 
David Olen Cross
Letter body: 

One of the detrimental impacts of having a significant foreign national population residing in the United States, be they legally or illegally present in the country, is crime.

The scope and impact of foreign national crime on the U.S. citizens and residents of this country is virtually going almost unreported in mainstream news sources online, on television or in hard-copy newspapers.

For example, information on foreign national crime has been readily available to any mainstream news source that has the ability to do a simple search on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons inmates statistics website under the heading of inmate citizenship.

Here is what a search of the U.S. BOP website reveals on the number and percentage of criminals living in the country illegally in federal prisons on Oct. 29 (the most recent crime numbers available).

Inmate citizenship:

• Mexico: 27,815 inmates, 14.6 percent.

• Colombia: 1,702 inmates, 0.9 percent.

• Dominican Republic: 1,685 inmates, 0.9 percent.

• Cuba: 1,228 inmates, 0.6 percent.

• Other/unknown countries: 9,516 inmates, 5 percent

• United States: 149,194 inmates, 78.1 percent

• Total inmates: 191,140

Putting these preceding inmate numbers and percentages into words:

On Oct. 29, there were 41,946 inmates in the country illegally in the BOP prison system. They were 21.9 percent of the federal prison population; more than 2 in every 10 prisoners were in the country illegally.

The 27,815 Mexican nationals in the BOP prison system were a staggering 66.3 percent, almost two-thirds, of those in the country illegally in federal prisons.

An interesting fact, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons breaks down the federal prison population into 13 types of offenses.

A significant fact, one of the top five offenses, the reason BOP inmates were incarcerated in federal prisons, was for immigration crimes. There were 15,580 inmates in the BOP prison system incarcerated for immigration crimes; they were 8.7 percent of the federal prison population.

Although data are less readily available, any mainstream news source can contact a state senator or representative in the Oregon Legislature representing the news sources’ state senate or house district and find out the number of foreign nationals in the Oregon Department of Corrections prison system.

On Nov. 1, 964 people in the country illegally were incarcerated in DOC prisons. They were 6.55 percent of inmates in the state’s 14 prisons. At 778 inmates, Mexican nationals were 80.71 percent of those illegally in the country in DOC prisons. The four Canadian nationals were 0.41 percent of criminals in the country illegally in DOC prisons.

The fourth estate, defined as “the public press,” needs to exercise due diligence in reporting on foreign national crime so governmental officials responsible for law enforcement at a national, state and local level will be held accountable in enforcing laws written to protect U.S. citizens and residents from criminal aliens that have and continue to invade our country.