Immigrants are less likely to commit predatory crimes than are native-born American citizens. Numerous studies have consistently found that immigrants are, in fact, less likely to commit crimes than the native-born. Despite this fact, restrictionist groups and sensationalizing media continue to propagate false images of immigrant communities plagued by crime and violence. The nation's leading experts on immigration and crime are setting the record straight. More than 130 sociologists, criminologists, and legal scholars have signed an open letter to President Bush, members of Congress, and state governors testifying that the problem of violent crime in the United States is not caused by immigrants, regardless of their legal status. In fact, they write, immigrants in every ethnic group in the United States have lower rates of crime and imprisonment than do the native-born. And over the past decade, as immigration rates have soared to historic highs, rates of violent crime and property crime have declined sharply. They urge lawmakers not to be swayed by unfounded myths and to base immigration policy on demonstrated facts, rather than false assumptions. The full Open Letter on Immigrants and Crime is available on the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) website. [http://www.ailf.org/ipc/ipc_openletter0507.shtml] Additional information on immigrants and crime can be found in the IPC's Special Report on the Myth of Immigrant Criminality and the Paradox of Assimilation.