Chicago City Wire

A recent report by the Chicago Contrarian that shows the rapid rise in recent years of the number of Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Colombians arrested in the city helps draw attention to the victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens, according to Don Rosenberg, President of Advocates for Victims of Illegal Alien Crimes (AVIAC).

But Rosenberg cautions that the figures, like other numbers indicating the true extent of illegal alien crime, will come under attack.

“No matter what the numbers say the advocates [of illegal immigration], if they will even respond, always have excuses,” Rosenberg told Chicago City Wire in an email. “Usually for things like this it’s racism. Whites are committing crimes but being ignored because of privilege. But better to keep piling it on.”

In addition, Rosenberg said that the Contrarian numbers are likely understated because Chicago is a sanctuary city, meaning that it’s illegal for local authorities to report an illegal to U.S. Immigrations and Customer Enforcement, aside from it being difficult for police to determine someone's citizenship status.

“Furthermore, particularly in states like California and cities like New York, many citizens and businesspeople don’t even report crimes because they know nothing will be done,” he said. "Of course, some of those crimes are committed by illegal aliens.”

The Government Accounting Office (GAO) has compiled three “Criminal Alien Statistics” reports with the first in 2005, and the most recent, covering 2010 to 2016, released in 2018.

A GAO spokesperson said that an updated report is due out soon.

"We do have ongoing work to update the 2018 report, however it is currently in its design phase, so we don’t have an issuance date yet,” Jessica Baxter told Chicago City Wire.

Rosenberg explains that the data for the GAO reports comes from information provided to the Department of Justice under the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), a program that reimburses states and municipalities that house illegal aliens in jails and prisons who have committed state and local crimes.

For reimbursement, the state and local governments must show that the illegal alien has been convicted of at least two misdemeanors or one felony.

“These requirements decrease the number of crimes the GAO can count, so the report, as mentioned numerous times, provides the minimum number of convictions,” Rosenberg said. “Additionally, many crimes are plea-bargained away, and crime clearance rates in the United States and crime clearance rates in the United States are in the low 20 percent range.”

In its report, the Chicago Contrarian report noted Chicago police (CPD) have arrested those born in Venezuela, Ecuador, and Colombia in record numbers over the past few years, according to a breakdown of CPD arrest figures by James Bosco. This, while arrest rates of those American born, or those born in some other foreign countries, like Puerto Rico and Mexico, have remained mostly flat, and for the native-born population has remained flat.

“A trend that continued, the rate of foreign-born arrestees rose to 18.7 percent in 2022, and in 2023, it continued to rise steadily to 24.9 percent,” Bosco reported. “Through July of this year, it is running at 31.9 percent. In sum, over the last three-year period, the rate at which CPD arrests foreign-born individuals has nearly tripled.”

In 2010, Rosenberg lost his son, Drew, in San Francisco to an illegal driving without a license.