Jeff Sessions used our research to claim that sanctuary cities have more crime. He’s wrong.

The following article by Loren Collingwood and Benjamin Gonzalez-O’Brien was posted on the Washington Post website July 14, 2017:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions waits before speaking to federal, state and local law enforcement officials about sanctuary cities and efforts to combat violent crime on July 12 in Las Vegas. (John Locher/AP)

On Wednesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave a speech in Las Vegas on sanctuary cities and local law enforcement. He announced, “According to a recent study from the University of California, Riverside, cities with these policies have more violent crime on average than those that don’t.” Almost certainly, the reference is to our study, which we first published here at the Monkey Cage in The Washington Post last October and later in the academic outlet Urban Affairs Review.

The attorney general’s summation of our study, however, is not true. In fact, our study suggests a different conclusion: Municipalities that chose to designate themselves as sanctuary cities for undocumented immigrants experience crime rates no higher than they otherwise would. We state this clearly throughout our study. Continue reading “Jeff Sessions used our research to claim that sanctuary cities have more crime. He’s wrong.”