Q: Donald Trump maintains that crime has increased dramatically during the Biden-Harris years, largely as a result of your immigration policies. How do you respond to that allegation?
A: A number of observations are pertinent here. First, the overwhelming majority of crimes are dealt with by the states, not the federal government, so regardless of what Trump believes and says, the president doesn’t have a magic wand to make criminals go away. The president is not Batman.
Second, it is quite clear from the statistics that immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than citizens born in America. Trump just uses a few anecdotes to make you think that criminal aliens are running wild in our streets. It is one of his lies.
Third, giving the police unrestricted powers to do whatever they want is not a good way to reduce crime, because it reduces the trust they need from the community. We have worked hard to make law enforcement more effective, not more brutal. We have no regrets about that.
Finally, the increase in crime that Trump complains about was the result of the pandemic, and started in 2020, when he was president. The George Floyd episode and the riots that resulted from it took place on his watch, not ours. Crime has been going down for the last few years. It is about back to where it was before the pandemic. So, just based on the numbers, the Trump argument is complete rubbish.