U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, said this week that the argument mass immigration puts the United States at physical risk is not a real problem, drawing both support and criticism for his comments.
Murphy made the remarks during an interview with the CT Mirror, a Connecticut news outlet. The conversation began with questions about Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests of parents at a bus stop in Danbury, Connecticut. Murphy said the intent of those arrests was to "terrorize these little kids" and described his efforts to oppose ICE and protect immigrants in the area.
When asked what could be done to address the situation over the longer term, Murphy turned his answer toward the Trump administration's framing of immigration as a public safety threat.
"The problem, according to the Trump administration, is a country that has been invaded, a country that is at risk physically because of the presence of people from other countries," Murphy said. "That is a fake problem. That is not a real problem."
He went further, citing crime statistics to support his position.
"Nobody likes to hear this," he added, "but immigrants, first generation immigrants and undocumented immigrants both commit crimes at rates lower than natural-born Americans, than people that are born here in this country. So if you want to live in a safe community, you are actually better off living in a community with people that just got to the United States of America. And so we're not seeking to solve 'a problem' of migrant crime."
Murphy also acknowledged that the immigration system itself frustrates Americans on both sides of the political aisle. He said the frustration comes from a system that "appears lawless, that appears without rules."
"That you can have your mom or dad or grandmother wait in line for years and years and years and then someone comes across the border who doesn't actually have a legal claim to stay in the U.S. and gets to be here for years. That's the problem we have to solve," he said.
When a listener asked whether he would dismantle ICE entirely, Murphy said people need to "tear down ICE and rebuild it" and argued that "this version of ICE should not remain or come back if Democrats control the presidency or Congress."
Daniel Di Martino, a Manhattan Institute fellow and Venezuelan-born economist, responded to Murphy's claims about immigrant crime rates. Di Martino said the point may be technically correct but that demographic differences skew the figures. He noted that according to the Census Bureau's latest five-year American Community Survey, more than 2% of American-born men between 18 and 59 are imprisoned, compared to 0.75% of immigrant men.
Murphy has previously drawn attention for comments about Democratic immigration policy, including past statements that the party has "failed to deliver for the people we care about most, the undocumented Americans that are in this country."
