Immigration

Ilya Somin | 9.12.2024 5:18 PM

Over the last few days, there has been an uproar over claims by nativists and immigration restrictionists that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio have been eating cats and other pets. Former President Donald Trump repeated those assertions in the recent presidential debate. As it turns out, the Ohio feline community can rest easy. Both local authorities in Springfield and Ohio's Republican governor say there is no evidence indicating that Haitian migrants in the area have eaten any cats or other pets. At the very least, if such things were happening routinely, we should have substantial evidence of it; and we don't.

More generally, as Cato Institute immigration policy expert Alex Nowrasteh documents, Haitian immigrants (both legal and illegal) actually have much lower crime rates than native-born Americans. And his data doesn't fully control for differences in age and sex; if it did, Haitian immigrants are likely to look even better, as recent immigrants tend to be younger and have a higher percentage of........

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