About once a month, an immigration story pops up in the fringes of the news causing me to pause and ask the nearest person “have you read the article I wrote when Ken Cuccinelli got appointed about how bad he is for the future of immigration? Because I was right!” (to read said article, click here).
Most recently, this happened when I received an email from USCIS subject lined “USCIS Releases Report on Arrest Histories of Illegal Aliens who Request DACA”. I read the email. I read the report. And then I turned to the nearest person and I said “have you read the article I wrote about Ken Cuccinelli?”
In the following paragraphs, I aim to expose and explain the misinformation being spread by this email and the USCIS report. It highlights the underhandedness of this administration’s approach to immigration policy and public opinion, and serves as a reminder of the importance of fact checking and thinking critically. So let’s walk through the information presented.
I began my reading with the email, and then moved on to the study. According to the email, 12% of DACA requestors had an arrest record as of October 2019 (unclear the scope of the sample; they do not specify). The attached report is 15 pages and full of stats about how many people were arrested under suspicion of various types of crimes, the ages of the apprehended people, and their countries of origin. The report and the email together promote a clear message – a high number of DACA recipients are criminals.
There are a few reasons I was unwilling to take this message at face value. The first is that by using solely arrest numbers, you are basing your argument on a biased sample. Black and brown people in this country are statistically more likely to be wrongfully arrested or apprehended without cause than their white counterparts. Since USCIS provides no data on the results of these arrests, we have no way of knowing how many of them were in response to a crime and how many were simply the result of biased policing.
This leads me to my main issue with the study, an arrest is not an indicator of guilt. USCIS provides no data about how many of these arrests resulted in a criminal charge or a conviction. They do include a footnote on the issue, that says
“An arrest indicates the alien was arrested or apprehended only and does not mean the alien was convicted of a crime. Further, aliens may not have been charged with a crime resulting from the arrest, may have had their charges reduced or dismissed entirely, or may have been acquitted of any charges.”
Without any statistics regarding the percentage of convictions, we have no way of knowing how many of these individuals were truly guilty. This would be a much more telling statistic overall, but USCIS does not provide the information.
My third issue with the report is that nowhere in the study itself or the accompanying email, are these arrest statistics put into context. The National Longitudinal Survey found that as of 2011, nearly one third of Americans (30.2%) had been arrested at least once by the time they turned 23. This means that based on the 12% arrest rate that USCIS gave us, DACA requestors are arrested not even HALF as often as average Americans. This finding is at odds with the tone of the study and the email, which are both overwhelmingly negative in their characterization of DACA requestors and recipients.
According to acting USCIS director Ken Cuccinelli, the purpose of the report is to provide “a better sense of the reality of those granted the privilege of a temporary deferral of removal action and work authorization under DACA”. However, I would argue that this report fails to provide any sense of reality. I would even argue that the use of statistics in the report, and the related language in the email, constitutes an intentional obfuscation of reality and an attempt to paint a deliberately negative narrative about DACA recipients.
The email is subject lined “USCIS Releases Report on Arrest Histories of Illegal Aliens Who Request DACA”, and begins with an italicized heading that reads “Offenses include Murder, Rape, Weapon and Assault Charges”. It’s important to note that according to their own statistics, only 5% of the total reported arrests were for these 4 types of crimes. This total includes the arrest data from both approved and denied requests, and again, includes no conviction rates. Starting the email off with this header is misleading and an obvious attempt at biasing the reader.
The stated intent of the email is to “reflect the agency’s ongoing focus on transparency”. This goal is then followed by some misleading statistical highlights, including the fact that 12% of DACA requestors have a criminal record, and that “of approved DACA requestors with an arrest, more than 31% (24,898) of them had more than one arrest”. One stat that they do not cite in their email overview is the percentage of DACA requestors who are approved with an arrest, which is only 10.38%. By skipping over this stat they are able to cite the 31% of people with multiple arrests, without the reader realizing that they are actually talking about 31% of the 10.38% — about 3% of DACA recipients.
The stated goal of the email and study may be transparency, but from start to finish USCIS does nothing but mislead the public about the alleged criminality of DACA recipients. By using arrest statistics without any data on conviction, the study gives us no meaningful information about the guilt or innocence of the arrested parties. By failing to mention the racial bias that affects the arrest rates of black and brown people, demographics that encompass many DACA requestors, the study casually allows systemic racism to bias their results. Finally, by failing to put the arrest rates of DACA requesters in context, they intentionally conceal the fact that DACA requestors are arrested less than half as often as the average American. So why publish such a blatantly misleading study at all?
One clue can be found in the statement by Ken Cuccinelli, which is quoted in the body of the email. Cuccinelli states, “This agency is obligated to continue accepting DACA requests from illegal aliens as a direct result of the previous administration’s decision to circumvent the laws as passed by Congress.” As you may or may not be aware, the Supreme Court is getting closer to making a ruling on the legality of the DACA program, and USCIS and ICE have been preparing for the program to be terminated. The ICE acting director Matthew Albence said in a statement on January 23rd that
“those individuals may have DACA but that doesn’t prevent us from going through the removal process. . . if they get ordered removed and DACA is done away with by the Supreme Court, we can actually effectuate those removal orders”.
In the context of DACA potentially ending soon, this misinformation report makes a lot of sense. DACA has been a very popular program for a long time, and if ICE, in conjunction with USCIS, is gearing up for a mass deportation of DACA recipients, they are going to be asked to justify their actions. By using manipulative studies like this one, I believe that USCIS is attempting what basically amounts to a giant smear campaign, in an attempt to sway public opinion in their favor.
By painting DACA requestors as dangerous criminals USCIS and ICE are better able to justify the mass deportation of these individuals. This fits with this administration’s pattern of fear-mongering about immigration. “Dangerous caravans”, “rapists and murderers”, “freeloaders” — there seems to be no end to Trump and Cuccinelli’s willingness to say whatever they think will be most effective in turning public opinion against immigrants.
Faced with this misinformation campaign, all we can really do is refuse to be manipulated. Pay attention, ask questions, and take the time to fact check. Also, tell the truth. If the newspaper quotes a misleading study, write in. If someone parrots biased talking points, say something. The best way to combat a misinformation campaign is with facts and context. And more than anything, vote. Let your candidates know that this kind of hateful manipulation of facts and public opinion is not something that we will tolerate moving forward.
And in case you had forgotten, Ken Cuccinelli is the worst thing that could have happened to USCIS. I told you so.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach me at thecommonthieme@gmail.com or leave a comment below!