In response to statements made by former President Donald Trump, Fair and Just Prosecution Acting Co-Executive Director Amy Fettig pushed back against what she called “dehumanizing rhetoric regarding immigrants and crime” from Tuesday night’s Presidential Debate.
The Presidential debate, she said, “was cholk-full of misleading, divisive, and dehumanizing rhetoric stoking fear about immigrants and crime.”
Fettig continued, “We strongly condemn these inaccurate and racially motivated attacks on immigrant communities, which should have no place in our political discourse. The truth is that, in 2024, rates of violent and nonviolent crime have fallen across the United States at the fastest pace ever recorded.”
“Unfortunately, irresponsible rhetoric like what we heard last night has been shown to harm public safety by making it harder for immigrants and their families to trust law enforcement, report criminal activity, or seek justice from the criminal legal system when they or their loved ones are the victims of violent or nonviolent criminal activity,” Fettig said.
“Additionally, numerous studies have proven that immigrants are far less likely to commit crimes than natural born U.S. citizens, and experts have found that this has continuously been the case dating as far back as 1870,” Fettig continued. “In fact, the opposite has been proven true. Immigrants are more likely to start new businesses, create new jobs, and have a positive impact on their communities, which has been proven to decrease crime.”
Finally, she added, “as a loving dog-mom, I want to reassure the public that their beloved pets are in fact safe and are not at risk of ending up on their neighbor’s dinner table.”
