Senator Jim Banks from Indiana has taken a firm stance on the issue of immigration-related crime, urging U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to close significant gaps in crime statistics that he claims obscure a ‘serious and growing problem with immigrant crime.’ According to a letter obtained by Fox News Digital, Banks points out that the absence of immigration status reporting by local and state authorities leads to an underreporting of crimes associated with illegal aliens.
Banks advocates for the reform of the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which is a crucial tool for most law enforcement agencies. Currently, the system only includes ethnicity as an optional element, without requiring the collection of immigration status or national origin data. This oversight, Banks argues, hampers the ability to fully understand the scope of crimes committed by illegal immigrants. His call to action is in line with former President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at increasing the investment in and collection of crime data.
Despite the fact that the Bureau of Prisons and U.S. Sentencing Commission track the national origin of federal offenders, the majority of crime occurrences in America lie within state and local jurisdictions. These local authorities are primarily responsible for the reporting of criminal activities, yet they generally do not track information regarding the citizenship status of offenders. This lack of data, Banks emphasizes, is problematic because the majority of violent and property crimes, as well as many drug offenses, occur at the state and local levels.
Banks also referenced a 2018 study by the Center of Immigration Studies, which found that noncitizens were disproportionately represented in crimes such as kidnapping, drug offenses, and money laundering. Drawing from data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the study revealed that immigrants, comprising 8.4% of the adult population, were responsible for 42.4% of kidnapping convictions, 31.5% of drug convictions, and 22.9% of money laundering convictions. These statistics, Banks argues, underscore the urgent need for improved data collection to effectively inform immigration policies and ensure public safety.