JD Vance says illegal immigration 'creates higher crime rates', cites Scorsese film as evidence

Vice-presidential hopeful and Donald Trump's running made, JD Vance, doubled down on past comments on immigration during a campaign event in Milwaukee on Friday, claiming that massive amounts of illegal immigration "starts to create ethnic conflict", which then "creates higher crime rates."

Vance then went on to cite the movie "Gangs of New York", a fictional film, to support his claims:

"Has anybody ever seen the movie 'Gangs of New York'? That's what I'm talking about. We know that when you have these massive ethnic enclaves forming in our country, it can sometimes lead to higher crime rates."

Later, he added: "What happens when you have massive amounts of illegal immigration? It actually starts to create ethnic conflict. It creates higher crime rates."

Vance made the reference after being asked about a series of comments, originally made in a 2021 interview with far-right podcaster Jack Murphy, which linked Italian, Irish, and German immigration to crime rates.

To substantiate his claims, Vance's campaign later provided a report from an anti-immigration think tank as evidence for his claims, The New York Times reports. The report suggests that crimes committed by immigrants are underestimated because many go unreported. The campaign also pointed to a rise in violence in Minnesota, attributed to rivalries between East African gangs in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The Times, however, cites a 2023 study by researchers at Stanford, Princeton, and other institutions as a counterpoint for Vance's ideas. The study found that, since 1880, immigrants have not been more likely to be imprisoned than U.S.-born citizens. Additionally, researches found that as immigration has increased, crime rates have decreased in recent years.

Vance has been very vocal about immigration as of late. In a recent press spree, he provided a glimpse into Trump's infamous mass deportation plan by saying:

"You start with what's achievable. I think that if you deport a lot of violent criminals and frankly if you make it harder to hire illegal labor, which undercuts the wages of American workers, I think you go a lot of the way to solving the illegal immigration problem. I think it's interesting that people focus on, well, how do you deport 18 million people? Let's start with 1 million. That's where Kamala Harris failed. And then we can go from there."