I was recently reading VDARE.com's Ed Rubenstein's analysis of the WSJ's latest statistical travesty in looking at crime and immigration. One thing that strikes me: WSJ was rather selective in concentrating on old fashioned violent crimes and crimes against property. The world of crime is shifting to areas like credit card fraud which was up 36% from 2003 to 2007. I like Ed's point on how immigration can indirectly influence crime rates. However, I felt that looking at incarceration rates gives an overly conservative view of crime committed by immigrants.

Immigrants, especially those from Mexico, have a special advantage over US citizens when it comes to committing crimes: If immigrants get wind of an investigation, they can go home and further investigation becomes quite a bit more difficult. Even when the US has extradition treaties, those treaties are limited in scope-and difficult to use in many cases. In the Portland area, Mexicans have come to dominate aspects of the illegal drug trade for this reason.