Letter to the editor: Immigration fearmongering

All the fearmongering election ads regarding migrant crime are extremely misleading. Please do some valid research and you’ll find that migrants do not, in fact, commit more crimes than people born in the U.S. The sources are many: National Institute of Justice, Brennan Center for Justice, migrationpolicy.org and Reuters, to name a few.

Data from legitimate research shows that immigration is actually linked to lower levels of crime. Using highly publicized individual violent incidents to condemn an entire class of people is wrong. I acknowledge that some have experienced violence at the hands of migrants, but these crimes are not as widespread as some politicians are trying to make you believe.

And I understand that there are problems with our immigration system that must be addressed. Migrant crime is not one of them. Sensationalizing it for political gain is a disservice to the victims of these crimes and the entire migrant population.

Marianne Leghart

Youngwood