Add Nia-Malika Henderson and Erin Burnett to the list of CNN personalities still clinging to incorrect claims that illegal immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than the general population. On Wednesday's Erin Burnett Outfront, CNN reporter Henderson fretted that President Donald Trump was "otherizing" illegal immigrants as she claimed that he was wrong in linking illegals to crime.
She even insisted that illegals have a lower crime rate that U.S. citizens: "And most studies show that undocumented immigrants aren't any more likely to commit crimes than citizens -- in fact, they are less likely to do that, so he uses this argument to then argue that there needs to be a wall to keep out, you know, immigrants from pouring into the country and committing crimes. And so I think a lot of folks have a problem with that because he's otherizing an entire segment of people with no data to back it up."
Host Burnett was on board with Henderson's flawed analysis as she injected, "Right," and "Yeah" while she was speaking.
In reality, studies have found that illegals commit subantially more crime per capita than U.S. citizens.
At 7:21 p.m. ET, as the group discussed complaints that President Trump cites numbers that are misleading on various issues, Henderson asserted:
The problem I think a lot of people have -- particularly Democrats and progressives -- have with the way Donald Trump spins the truth is that he tends to malign certain groups when he's spinning these numbers, particularly around crime and illegal immigrants. And we've seen him do that -- talk about undocumented immigrants, particularly Mexicans. Really, this is a constant theme throughout his presidency, and he talked about -- throughout his presidency and candidacy -- talking about undocumented immigrants and relating them to crime.
Her analysis continued:
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NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON: And most studies show that undocumented immigrants aren't any more likely to commit crimes than citizens -- in fact, they are less likely to-
ERIN BURNETT: Right.
HENDERSON: -do that, so he uses this argument to then argue that there needs to be a wall to keep out, you know, immigrants from pouring into the country and committing crimes. And so I think a lot of folks have a problem with that because he's otherizing an entire segment of people-
BURNETT: Yeah.
HENDERSON: -with no data to back it up.
Burnett again agreed that "he's doing that" as she set up her next question to CNN's Mark Preston. Burnett:
But, Mark (Preston), he's doing that, but, you know, when you look at what Tom is saying here on that claim that, right, he said the current immigration system costs American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. That report does say integrating first-generation immigrants is costly. It does say that. But it then says their kids contribute so much to the economy, the long-term benefit is likely positive.
