Does Halting Refugee Resettlement Reduce Crime? Evidence from the United States Refugee Ban

In January of 2017, the Trump administration halted refugee resettlement ostensibly to review vetting procedures. Subsequently, refugee admission numbers were drastically reduced over previous levels. The rationale for these changes was to minimize the risk that refugees would engage in criminal acts or threaten national security. These actions permitted researchers at Stanford to conduct a “natural experiment” to see if there were any reductions in crime rates associated with reduced refugee admissions. Examining county-level data available through the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports database, the researchers found “no discernible effect on county-level crime rates. These null effects (were) consistent across all types of crime.”  The authors suggest several possible reasons for this result, including the “multilayered vetting that involves multiple agencies running extensive background checks” and the fact that refugees are often selected for admission to the U.S. on “vulnerability-based criteria.” (American Immigrant Policy Portal) 

Download now or view online.