Editor’s Note: El Paso Matters is partnering with Gigafact to produce “fact briefs” that examine claims about issues shaping our community.
Yes.
In 2022, the most recent year available, the El Paso Police Department reported 1,692 crimes per 100,000 people. Only nine of the nation’s 100 largest cities reported lower crime rates, according to crime data compiled by the FBI.
Frisco and Laredo, which are less than half as populous as El Paso, were the only Texas cities with lower crime rates.
The city with the highest crime rate, Tacoma, Washington, had almost six times more reported crimes per capita than El Paso in 2022.
Politicians such as Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have linked undocumented immigrants and crime in discussions about the U.S.-Mexico border. A 2020 PNAS study, which analyzed arrests recorded by the Texas Department of Public Safety between 2012 and 2018, found that undocumented immigrants had lower felony crime rates than both legal immigrants and native-born U.S. citizens in Texas.
- This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data Explorer
- Google Docs 2022 FBI Crime Data for America’s 100 Largest Cities
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Comparing crime rates between undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants, and native-born US citizens in Texas
- X (formerly Twitter) post: @GarciaReports NEW — Speaking to reporters outside Shelby Park, @LtGovTX argued that Texas is being invaded by “murders…terrorists…rapists” https://t.co/lbk86utorQ
