According to the researchers, the state of Texas groups American criminals in the same category as criminals with an unknown immigration status, making the number of illegal alien criminals much higher once that status is figured out. Nowrasteh failed to recognize this in his report.
“… 'native-born' is not a category verified by DPS. Native-born Americans are grouped with yet-to-be-identified immigrants in a catch-all category called 'other/unknown.' The number of unknowns shrinks during incarceration as Texas updates the figures upon identification of an inmate’s immigration status,” the CIS report reads.
The report then went on to display that the real numbers show that illegal immigrant homicide convictions were significantly higher than the state rate.
“It is easy to observe how the identification of additional illegal immigrants changes the relative conviction rates over time. For example, in Cato's analysis of 2015 DPS data, the illegal immigrant homicide conviction rate appeared to be 8 percent lower than the state's homicide rate. By the time we requested updated data in 2021, after more illegal immigrants had been identified, the 2015 illegal immigrant homicide conviction rate was 20 percent higher than the state rate.”
Cato later published updated studies from Nowrasteh in 2019 using DPS data for 2017, and again in 2021, with DPS data for 2019.
“By now it should be clear that such recent data will not provide an accurate picture because the state has had too little time to identify illegals who are still categorized as 'other/unknown,'” the CIS report said in reference to the newer studies that concluded with similar claims of illegal aliens commiting less crime than Americans.