{
  "id": 11174119,
  "title": "The Problem With Trump’s Crime Claims",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/01/the-problem-with-trumps-crime-claims",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-01T11:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Atlantic",
    "slug": "the-atlantic",
    "url": "https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/10/trump-immigration-ice-crime-sanctuary-city/688829/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "President Trump's party is likely to experience significant losses in the upcoming midterm elections. However, there is one positive aspect of his tenure: the nation's homicide rate has reached its lowest point since at least 1900, and the overall number of violent crimes is plummeting at the fastest rate ever recorded. Trump and his senior officials, such as domestic-policy adviser Stephen Miller, attribute these trends to their immigration crackdown at the southern border and throughout U.S. streets.\n\nTrump boasted at the United Nations General Assembly that the border had been the worst and most dangerous in the world before his presidency, now strictly controlled with no illegal immigrants allowed entry. He further emphasized in an August rally in South Carolina that voters should support Republicans to remove \"migrant criminals\" from their communities. The administration's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested around 50,000 immigrants per month during the summer, the highest level ever, with deportations expected to reach a record yearly total.\n\nNevertheless, Trump's assertion that ICE plays a role in the decreasing crime rate lacks substantiation from his own administration's data. Several cities and states that have witnessed the most substantial declines in homicide rates, as per FBI and census data, also happen to be sanctuary jurisdictions, which the administration criticizes as breeding grounds for violent crime. The Department of Justice defines sanctuary jurisdictions as areas with policies, laws, or regulations that hinder enforcement of federal immigration laws. Among the five jurisdictions with the largest changes in the violent-crime rate, three were labeled sanctuaries: Connecticut, Illinois, and the District of Columbia. Moreover, out of the 11 states experiencing the fastest decreases in homicide rates, six are recognized as sanctuary jurisdictions by the DOJ: Vermont, Delaware, Maryland, Illinois, Washington State, and New York. Massachusetts also has a sanctuary policy in its largest city. The states boasting the highest numbers of ICE arrests do not necessarily exhibit the most significant reductions in violent crime, either in terms of raw numbers or percentage change compared to the previous year.",
  "summary": "The president says that his immigration crackdown is behind falling crime rates. The numbers don’t back that up.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}