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Begin New Search Political Geography North America Author Andrew C. Forrester

1. Illegal Immigration and Crime in Texas

Author:
Alex Nowrasteh, Andrew C. Forrester, and Michelangelo Landgrave
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Donald J. Trump launched his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in June 2015 by comments on illegal immigrants and the crime they commit in the United States. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you,” he said. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.” A few weeks after Trump’s announcement, 32‐​year‐​old Kate Steinle was shot and killed by an illegal immigrant Jose Inez Garcıa Zarate in San Francisco, California. Although Zarate was later acquitted of all murder and manslaughter charges due to mistakes made by the prosecutor, his shooting of Steinle seemed to support Trump’s worry about illegal immigrants causing a crime spree and helped win him the election in 2016.
Topic:
Crime, Immigration, and Border Control
Political Geography:
North America, Texas, and United States of America

2. Immigrants Do Not Negatively Affect the Economic Institutions of American States

Author:
Alex Nowrasteh and Andrew C. Forrester
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Freer immigration could potentially lead to trillions of dollars in additional annual global output. However, the movement of many more immigrants could produce negative externalities that swamp the benefits, particularly if immigrants undermine productivity in their new countries by bringing with them the institutions or cultures that are responsible for low productivity in their home countries. We examine this by seeing how immigrants affect state budgets — a proxy for the quality of economic institutions — between 1970 and 2010 in the United States. We find that larger immigrant shares of the population produce large reductions in the growth of real per capita tax revenue and outlays in the short run that moderate to smaller longer‐​term growth declines in both.
Topic:
Immigration, Economy, Immigrants, Tax Systems, Institutions, and Revenue Management
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America