There were 34,709 crimes of various types committed by illegal aliens in fiscal years 2016, 2017 and the 11 months of 2018, according to the United States Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), one of the seven components of the Department of Homeland Security.
While the largest number of crimes – more than fifteen thousand or 44 percent of the arrests and convictions of illegal aliens – were for unlawful entry or reentry, all the other crimes – 19,510 offenses or 56 percent – caused financial, medical, physical, psychological or sexual harm, impairment, or damage to the hapless victims, or led to their deaths.
This includes crimes such as “driving under the influence” of alcohol or drugs or narcotics, or the possession, trafficking, and transport of deadly weapons and drugs – that resulted in, or had the potential to result in harm to or death of people.
The range of crime types during this three-year period was so wide that almost 5,700 or one of every six crimes were placed under the category of “other.” Needless to say, these “other” un-categorized crimes may also have caused bodily harm.
The United States provides means for people who entered it, to adjust their illegal status to legal, temporary-stay nonimmigrant visa status for various purposes, such as business, study, or tourism. Before the expiration of any of these visas, the nonimmigrant visa holder, with the assistance of a practicing attorney on immigration law, can apply for permanent residence, if eligible. Conviction for crimes makes it more difficult.
Biz India Online News conducted extensive research to find coverage of these crimes on the websites of major news media in the United States, from June 2016 when the campaigns for the US presidency were in full swing, through January 2019, and concluded that apart from one Fox News episode by Tucker Carlson on December 17, 2017, quoting U.S. Census data titled “Why didn’t we know truth about illegals and crime?” there was no other major media news report providing a compilation of data on crimes committed by illegal aliens.
That research included such straight forward searches phrases as “illegal aliens’ crimes,” yet they found nothing. Does that surprise you?
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in Texas alone, there have been more than 251,000 criminal aliens in Texas jails between 2011 and 2018 charged with 663,000 criminal offenses. Those arrests include 79,049 assault charges; 18,685 burglary charges; 1,351 homicide charges; 815 kidnapping charges; 79,900 drug charges; 44,882 theft charges; 50,777 obstructing police charges; 9,938 weapon charges; 4,292 robbery charges; and 7,156 sexual assault charges!
Of the total criminal aliens arrested in that timeframe, over 168,000 or 66 percent were identified by DHS status as being in the US illegally at the time of their last arrest.
Remarkably, even during the 2016 presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump, there was a virtual blackout in US major news media on such important news on illegal aliens’ crimes that affect the security and safety, in terms of protection against bodily harm, hurt, and death, of over around 325 million people in the US.
This raises the all-important question: what could be the possible reasons for the omission of such important news by US news media?
This absence of coverage continued even after frequent mentions by presidential candidate Donald J. Trump about Mexicans who, he had said repeatedly in his campaign rallies, were illegally coming in daily as “drug dealers and traffickers, MS-13 gang members, murderers, and rapists.”
As early as in elementary school in Manila, Philippines, we learned the essential requirements of good journalism, particularly in the straight-news reporting format including accuracy, balance, clarity, fairness, impartiality, and especially perspective.
A reporter’s opinion, stance, or view, has no place in a straight-news reporting, the journalism professor emphasized in high school-level workshops. So these days when I read front-page straight-news reports in US newspapers, this question comes up in my mind over and over: is this the writer’s personal opinion? If so, should it not be in the opinion or op-ed section?
Is it any surprise that in a January 2018 Pew Research Center poll involving 38 countries, the title itself highlighted that the US public had the greatest dissatisfaction with its news media and its ability to deliver unbiased coverage? “Publics Globally Want Unbiased News Coverage but Are Divided on Whether Their News Media Deliver: Deep political divides in many nations on satisfaction with news media; greatest is in the US.”
One of the most important findings of this study, quoting the report, was this: “the survey finds that a median of 75 percent across 38 countries say it is never acceptable for a news organization to favor one political party over others when reporting the news.”
The Washington Examiner summarized the poll results in the headline: “US media bias ranks worst in the world.”
In the politically-divided US, the highest scores given news media were 61 for perspective, a low 58 for balance, just 56 for accuracy, and a very low 47 for fairness.
In contrast, Philippine respondents in the same poll held the second highest regard for their news media. Being a columnist for the Philippines Daily Tribune, I’m keenly aware of the slogan on our masthead: “Without Fear, Without Favor.” The American news media might learn something from such a simple slogan from their oceanic neighbors.
Kumar Balani is founder, publisher, and editor-in-chief since 2002, of Biz India Online News and has an AB Journalism degree from the University of the Philippines and an MA in International Politics from New York University. His US-based Sunday column appears in the Philippines Daily Tribune.
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