Better Conversations: A Discussion Guide
This would be great for our Tables and Life Group leaders, or anyone wanting to continue the conversation outside of a Sunday service context.
Topic: Immigration
These resources are specific to the topic of immigration and those who are wanting to engage in a deeper conversation around this issue.
How to contact your representatives about dignified immigration reform
Congress must be proactive rather than reactive on immigration reform.
Immigration Statistics
These are statistics from Pastor Jen's message 'Citizens & Neighbors Part 3.'
- There are 117.3 million forcibly displaced people globally, of which 47 million are children – UN Refugee Agency 2023
- The US Dept of Homeland Security estimates that there are a total of 11 million unauthorized immigrants living in the US as of Jan 2022. 80% of them arrived before 2010 and as early as 1980.
- In 2016 the Trump campaign hugely focused on fear and misinformation about border realities, claiming that we had more illegal crossings than ever before. According to US Homeland Security statistics, illegal crossings were as low as they had ever been, and had been since 2009.
- The majority of undocumented immigrants in the US don’t come here through our southern border, instead they are typically flying here and then overstaying a visa.
- According to the Department of Justice and Homeland Security, of the 1.5 million apprehensions of people attempting to cross the border illegally in the past year, only 15,608 were people with previous criminal records. The most common conviction was for illegal entry into another country (9,545) followed by driving under the influence (2,577) and drug related offenses (1,414). This combines to a total of 1% of those apprehended this year at the border actually have a criminal record, and the majority of those are immigration offenses.
- According to ICE, whose job it is to find and remove criminals and terrorists who are in our country illegally, between 2021 and 2022 only 8% of those who they deported that year had a criminal history. In comparison, statistics state that 33% of Americans have a criminal record.
- Stanford did a huge study examining the correlation between immigrants and crime over the last 140 years, and found that the likelihood of an immigrant being incarcerated is 60 percent lower than that of people born in the United States. **see links for reference
- Crime rates continue to steadily decline in the US, as immigration rates incline. **see graphs for reference
- Fentanyl is awful and a serious problem, but it’s important to understand that it is coming through legal ports of entry (96%) and 90% of seizures are from American citizens, not those seeking asylum. *see links
- The average wait for asylum claims is 6 years, and most asylum seekers will not ultimately be granted asylum. Over 70% of asylum cases were denied during fiscal year 2020.