Immigration has emerged as a key issue for voters in this election. In a 2024 Gallup poll, Americans were most likely to state immigration as the most important problem facing this country, even over the issues of inflation, poverty, racism, crime and healthcare, with many believing an influx of immigrants is a crisis in the United States.
From 2000 to 2022, the lawful immigrant population in the U.S. has grown steadily from 24.1 million to 36.9 million, according to Pew Research Center. In addition to the 36.9 million lawful immigrants, it was estimated that there were about 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. in 2022. Most of the nation’s immigrants have lived in four states: California, Texas, Florida and New York.
In Luzerne County, there are about 33,768 foreign-born individuals, which equates to about 10 percent of the county’s population, according to 2024 U.S. Census data provided by Teri Ooms, president and CEO of the data analysis, research and consulting organization The Institute.
With a relatively low foreign-born population locally, some young local citizens do not find immigration or border security to be key issues that impact their lives or their election decisions.
“I think that gun violence, women’s rights to bodily autonomy and the huge gap between the rich and the poor are far more important issues than the amount of people who enter the country,” Wilkes University student Jason Oshman said. “The only time in my life I have had to think about immigration is when other people say it’s an issue.”
Other young locals consider immigration, particularly unauthorized immigration, to be a problem due to the belief that it causes an increase in crime.
King’s College alum Shaun Gurnari said that migrant crime is a problem that can be seen in the news every day and in constant clips on social media.
“Most of the people causing the crime are not here legally,” he said.
Wilkes University student Maddie Belk, however, does not believe there is a significant correlation between immigration and crime.
“I feel like there are far more criminals born and raised in the United States than migrants coming into the country,” she said. “Most of the people trying to get into the country are just looking for better lives and not looking to cause crime.”
Ooms confirmed that these cultures come here for a better life, primarily to escape violence and poverty in their countries.
Although she did not have data to determine if a migrant influx leads to more crime locally, she said that local foreign-born communities live in high levels of poverty, which could correlate with increased crime rates.
“More crime is the result of abject poverty regardless of a person’s race, ethnicity or citizenship,” Ooms said. “We do have abject poverty in over 20 percent of Luzerne County households.”
National research on migrant crime is limited, though studies have shown immigrants generally do not commit crimes at higher rates than native-born Americans.
Charis Kubrin, criminology professor at the University of California, Irvine, conducted a meta-analysis of more than 50 studies on the link between immigration and crime between 1994 and 2014 and found no significant relationship between the two.
The Cato Institute think tank found in multiple studies between 2019 and 2021 that immigrants commit less crimes than native-born citizens. In 2024, they found that unauthorized immigrants have lower conviction and arrest rates for homicide, sex crimes, theft and other crimes.
There seems to be a lack of evidence that immigrants commit more crimes and some evidence that they commit fewer crimes, yet the fear of immigrants, particularly unauthorized immigrants, remains prominent, which has contributed to both presidential candidates, especially Former President Donald Trump, deciding to take a more stringent stance on immigration and border security.
“Certainly, when we all read the headlines about Venezuelan gangs such as Tren de Aragua, it’s easy to feel uneasy and unprotected,” Wilkes University student John Sudol said.
Sudol acknowledges that migrant crime is a problem, but he takes issue with fearmongering and misinformation.
“However, these threats, now especially more than ever, feel watered-down when we look at the most recent racist right-wing migrant propaganda about Haitians in Ohio,” Sudol said. “After seeing how damaging such rhetoric caused, I truly believe everyone needs to take several steps back from the border discussion.”
Although they are commonly seen as threatening, Ooms said that foreign-born populations are generally vulnerable. In Luzerne County, they struggle with poverty, language barriers and a lack of recognition for their credentials, among other issues.
“The immigrant community appears to live in fear here and do not trust most organizations, people and institutions because of discriminatory experiences,” Ooms said.
A perceived correlation between immigration and crime is just one of the reasons why immigration is considered to be a major problem this election.
“I see reports of them stealing jobs and doing them for less while other citizens aren’t able to get them,” Gurnari said.
This is a common argument against immigration, according to the Cato Institute. Other popular arguments are that immigrants will increase crowding and abuse the welfare state, though the Cato Institute argues that there is evidence that counters these claims.
