By Ron Lowe
There goes another bogus claim of the anti-immigration crowd. A report just released says that immigrants are far less likely to commit crimes than are native born citizens. People born in the United States are 10 times more likely than immigrants to be incarcerated.
Go to any cosmopolitan city, New York, Miami, San Francisco, and you will hear a wide diversity of languages from around the world being spoken. So much for the “speak English” only spiel of talk radio hosts.
As far as the assimilation argument goes, I see multitudes of Mexicans and Latinos and their children and they’re working, speaking English and assimilating quite well, thank you. Every day the bigotry, intolerance and prejudice that drives the anti-immigration movement becomes more apparent.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 12, 2008. Read the original PDF.