The illegal immigrants who streamed into New York City over the past four years led to increases in crime near the hotels where they were housed, according to a new academic study.
William LeRoy, an incoming professor at Charles University in Prague, crunched crime report data and found that arrests of Hispanics, the dominant demographic of the largely Venezuelan newcomers, rose in the immediate areas around the hotels.
The significant increase was in lower-level thefts.
“The baseline increase in Hispanic arrest rates is driven primarily by cash-generating offenses, such as petit and grand larceny, indicating that economic hardship is a leading factor behind criminal behavior,” Mr. LeRoy concluded.
He said the crime increases seemed to be tied to the lack of job prospects for the new arrivals.
Using Hispanics as proxies for illegal immigrants, Mr. LeRoy compared crime reports with ZIP codes where migrants showed up in city-funded housing. He found a 5.5% increase, relative to the average.