ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

 A report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that there are “approximately 14.5 million illegal aliens residing within the United States" as of 2020.

"Based on FAIR’s most recent comprehensive fiscal cost study, illegal aliens are likely imposing a net fiscal burden of at least $133.7 billion,” the report says.

Below are the official statistics on drug smuggling across the southern border, as reported by CNN. 

Heroin

"The DEA reported that 'Heroin from Mexico accounted for 86 percent of the heroin by weight analyzed' in 2016 and that the southwest border 'remains the primary entry point for heroin into the United States.'"

Cocaine

"According to the DEA, 93 percent of cocaine samples tested were of Colombian origin. The Southwest border is the 'principal entry point for the majority of the cocaine entering the United States,' according to the DEA."

Meth

"In its analysis of methamphetamine, the DEA also found that the southwest border 'remains the main entry point for the majority of methamphetamine entering the United States' accounting for 97% of meth seizures by the Customs and Border Patrol."

According to the DEA, more drugs caught by border officials are detected at legal points of entry along the southern border than between points of entry.

This point comes with an important caveat, though: official numbers leave out drugs that go undetected—only including those located and seized by border officials, drug dogs, state-of-the-art technology, and intelligence.

According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), "91% of those ICE initially arrested in the interior and subsequently removed had criminal convictions or pending criminal charges at the time of arrest" in fiscal year 2019. 

In a pilot program, U.S. immigration officials conducted rapid DNA tests of "immigrant adults who were suspected of arriving at the southern border with children who weren't theirs."

About 30% of these tests revealed the adults were not related to the children, according to an official involved with the program's rollout who spoke with the Washington Examiner.

Further, according to a 2019 Washington Examiner article, "In some incidents where Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the adults they would have to take a cheek swab to verify a relationship with a minor, several admitted the child was not related and did not take the DNA test, which was designed by a U.S. company."

A report from the United States Commission on Civil Rights explored the effects of illegal immigration on employment and wages.

The panel of experts concluded, “Illegal immigration to the United States in recent decades has tended to depress both wages and employment rates for low-skilled American citizens, a disproportionate number of whom are black men.” 

According to data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey—analyzed by the Center for Immigration Studies—only six civilian occupations out of 474 are majority immigrant (legal and illegal).

Researchers from CIS also found:

• "These six occupations account for 1 percent of the total U.S. workforce. Moreover, native-born Americans still comprise 46 percent of workers in these occupations."

• "There are no occupations in the United States in which a majority of workers are illegal immigrants."

• "Illegal immigrants work mostly in construction, cleaning, maintenance, food service, garment manufacturing, and agricultural occupations. However, the majority of workers even in these areas are either native-born or legal immigrants."

• "Only 4 percent of illegal immigrants and 2 percent of all immigrants do farm work."

 According to the Center for Immigration Studies, many jobs commonly thought to be immigrant-dominated are actually majority native-born, including:

• Maids and housekeepers: 51% native-born

• Taxi drivers and chauffeurs: 54% native-born

• Butchers and meat processors: 64% native-born

• Grounds maintenance workers: 66% native-born

• Construction laborers: 65% native-born

• Janitors: 73% native-born

Government agencies typically do not tabulate crime data for illegal immigrants.

Nevertheless, researchers have attempted to compare illegal immigrant and native-born crime rates through "statistical modeling or by extrapolating from smaller samples," according to a 2018 FactCheck.org article.

The findings of these studies are mixed, though many find lower rates of crime among illegal aliens than among American citizens.

But in addition to a lack of available data, these studies likely depress illegal immigrant crime rates for the following reasons:

• Estimates likely undercount crimes committed by illegal immigrants, since illegal immigrant victims are less likely to report crime. This is evidenced by a 2013 PolicyLink report, which found, “70 percent of undocumented immigrants reported they are less likely to contact law enforcement authorities if they were victims of a crime.”

• Department of Justice deportation data show that the U.S. routinely deports illegal immigrants who are convicted of crimes committed in the U.S., making it hard for them to reoffend.

• According to Social Security Administration estimates, millions of illegal immigrants engage in identity and benefit fraud by using fraudulent social security numbers, drivers’ licenses, green cards, etc. These felonies are largely unaccounted for in studies estimating illegal immigrant crime rates.