BJS · FBI UCR/NIBRS · ICE/DHS — US Federal Official Data
US Immigration & Crime
What Official Federal Data ShowsNo systematic cross-tabulation exists
Unlike Sweden, Denmark, or Norway, the US does not publish systematic federal crime statistics disaggregated by immigration status. This page explains what data exists and what it cannot establish.
What federal data exists
| Data source | What it covers | What it does not cover |
|---|---|---|
| Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) | Incarceration rates by race/ethnicity; victimisation surveys (NCVS) | No systematic disaggregation by nativity or immigration status |
| FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) / NIBRS | Arrest and offence data by age, sex, race | No immigration status variable collected |
| ICE / DHS | Deportation and enforcement data; criminal alien removals | Not comparable to general population crime rates; reflects enforcement priorities, not crime incidence |
| State-level data (varies by state) | Some states publish incarceration by citizenship (e.g., Texas DPS) | Not nationally representative; coverage and methodology vary |
Why no systematic federal cross-tabulation exists
- Immigration status is not collected as a variable in the FBI's UCR/NIBRS arrest database.
- The Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) collects nativity and citizenship but is not linked to criminal justice administrative data at the federal level.
- The Department of Justice does not publish a routine report comparing crime rates of native-born vs. foreign-born or documented vs. undocumented populations.
What academic and state-level studies show
In the absence of federal cross-tabulations, academic researchers have used linked administrative datasets or state-level sources. Peer-reviewed studies (e.g., Chalfin 2014, Butcher & Piehl 2007, Adelman et al. 2017) consistently find that immigrants — including undocumented immigrants — are incarcerated at lower rates than native-born Americans. However, these are not official federal statistics and reflect specific methodological choices.
- Texas DPS data: the most cited state-level official dataset. Shows lower conviction rates for both legal and undocumented immigrants than native-born Texans. Caveat: Texas is not representative of national patterns.
- ICE enforcement data is sometimes cited, but records deportees with criminal convictions — a self-selected group, not a representative crime rate for the immigrant population.
What this means for comparisons
- The United States cannot be compared on this metric to Sweden (BRÅ), Denmark (DST), or Norway (SSB), which publish national per-capita suspect or conviction rates by immigrant background.
- Claims that the US has a higher or lower immigrant crime rate than European countries lack the data to support them.
- Immigration Factbook marks the US crime-by-immigration-status cell as "no systematic federal cross-tabulation" rather than presenting a figure that does not exist in that form.
Primary references
- Bureau of Justice Statistics. National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). bjs.gov
- FBI. Crime in the United States / NIBRS. fbi.gov
- Texas Department of Public Safety. Conviction and Arrest Rates of Undocumented Immigrants (annual). dps.texas.gov