Police arrested 23-year-0ld Francis Hernandez after the incident. Hernandez now faces very serious charges of vehicular homicide, hit and run, and vehicular assault among others. Hernandez has a lengthy rap sheet and has had run-ins with the law before. He now will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and face the consequences of his actions. Those consequences will include not only legal penalties, but the heavy weight on his conscience of the lives that he has taken.
This tragedy is completely incomprehensible. There is no explanation for why things like this happen in our world, and when things are incomprehensible, we want answers. We search for reasons--we look for blame. It is natural. Immediately after the tragedy, the public wanted somewhere to project their sorrows and somewhere to place the blame, and as often occurs, the public turned its blame to the system. There were immediate accusations that Hernandez must be undocumented. There were questions raised regarding his citizenship. There were complaints filed against the Aurora police department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement alleging that Hernandez was an "illegal" immigrant and that he had somehow bucked the system and escaped deportation. They claimed that this would never have happened had Hernandez been deported.
In anger and pain, the public called for radical, draconian and flat-out unconstitutional changes to the laws. The public demanded that bail be denied to non-citizens who get caught in the criminal system. The public called for prosecutors to refuse to give plea agreements to non-citizens. While the public is rightfully angry for this tragedy, laws made out of emotions make for bad law. Furthermore, such knee-jerk reactions to tragedy only serve to divert the attention away from the victims of this tragedy and further divide us when we should come together.
While Hernandez should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for this offense, it is important to clarify that he did not commit this offense because of his country of origin. He did not commit this offense because of his status in this country. He did not commit this offense because he is a citizen or because he is not a citizen. Those facts have nothing to do with the commission of this offense. While the public should be angry at Hernandez for this tragedy and for the lives lost, it should end there.
The anger that the public displays is greatly fueled by persistent myths in the media regarding immigration and criminality. The media constantly bombards the public with the myth that immigrants are somehow more violent that citizens and that they are more prone to crime than native-born citizens. The facts simply demonstrate otherwise.
Statistics from the Immigration Policy Center bear out the following actual facts about immigrants and crime:
Immigrants are 5 times less likely to be in prison than the native born.
A 2007 study by UC-Irvine sociologist Ruben G. Rumbaut found that the 3.5% incarceration rate for native-born men age 18-39 was five times higher than the 0.7% rate for immigrant men in 2000.
Undocumented immigration is NOT associated with higher crime rates.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that although the undocumented immigrant population doubled from 1994 to 2005, the violent crime rate in the United States declined by 34.2% and the property crime rate fell by 26.4% in the same period. Border cities and other cities with large immigrant populations also experienced decreasing crime rates.
Crime is lowest in States with the most immigrants.
According to a 2008 report from the conservative Americas Majority Foundation, crime rates are lowest in states with the highest immigration growth rates. From 1999 to 2006, the total crime rate declined 13.6% in the 19 highest-immigration states, compared to a 7.1% decline in the other 32 states. In 2006, the 10 "high influx" states--those with the most dramatic, recent increases in immigration--had the lowest rates of violent crime and total crime.
New Jersey: An analysis from the New Jersey Department of Corrections and U.S. Census Bureau by New Jersey's Star Ledger in April 2008 found that "US citizens are twice as likely to land in New Jersey's prisons as legal and illegal immigrants." In fact, "non-US citizens make up 10% of the state's overall population, but just 5% of the inmates in prison."
California: Foreign-born adults in California have lower incarceration rates than their native-born counterparts. According to a June 2008 report from the Public Policy Institute of California, "the incarceration rate for foreign-born adults is 297 per 100,000 in the population, compared with 813 per 100,000 for US-born adults. The foreign-born, who make up roughly 35% of California's adult population, constitute 17% of the state prison population, a proportion that has remained fairly constant since 1990."
In the face of this tragedy, now is the time for us to come together. Let us not be divided by scapegoating and rash policy-making based on fear. Do not let myths and stereotypes blind us to the facts.
In this time of tragedy, let us not forget that three-year-old Martin Kudlis was himself the child of Russian immigrants who came to this country because this country was founded on principles of justice, fairness and equality before the law.
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