Since When Is Every Immigrant A Criminal?

President Trump often demonizes entire immigrant groups, referring to Mexican people as “rapists” and undocumented immigrants as “animals.” Yet statistics show that immigrants, both undocumented and otherwise, are actually less likely to commit crimes than the average U.S. citizen. How did our American political conversation start to conflate immigrants with criminality? And how has immigration policy changed along with this rhetoric? Cecillia Wang, the deputy legal director of the ACLU, discusses the legal and political history of immigration criminalization. At Liberty is also joined by Ravi Ragbir, an immigrant and activist leader waging a legal battle against his own deportation.