After Colorado Media Matters initiated a public petition calling on 630 KHOW-AM radio host Peter Boyles to apologize for repeated false, misleading, and dubious claims he and his guests have made on the air about illegal immigration, Boyles on his October 20 show cited a series of questionable statistics on illegal immigration. Frequently, when citing the sources for the statistics, Boyles addressed Colorado Media Matters directly.

After saying he spent time “looking at numbers,” Boyles read from three sources: an article from the right-wing news website NewsMax; an article on NewsWithViews.com by Frosty Wooldridge, author of the 2004 book Immigration's Unarmed Invasion and an occasional guest on Boyles's show; and an article by Manhattan Institute John M. Olin fellow Heather Mac Donald, published on the website of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). Without disclosing the fact that he was reading from the NewsMax article, Boyles presented questionable statistics contained in that article. In addition, Boyles misstated a statistic from Wooldridge's article and repeated Mac Donald's statistics, even though Mac Donald's claims have been challenged by the Los Angeles Times and conservative columnist Linda Chavez.

Boyles told his guest, Center for Immigration Studies fellow Michael Cutler,* that Colorado Media Matters is “saying that we have had, I don't know, four or five people on who have talked about crimes committed by illegals, and they put a stamp on their website that says those statements are false. So, I spent yesterday -- I spent -- two days ago, by the way, looking at numbers, and let me give you, and you tell me, if you would, elaborate on them.” He also characterized Colorado Media Matters as “sort of open borders guys ... attempt[ing] ... to deflect the crimes that are perped” by illegal immigrants.

Boyles was referring to Colorado Media Matters' items (here, here, here, and here) addressing the dubious assertion -- attributed to Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and repeated by Boyles and some of his guests -- that illegal immigrants are responsible for the deaths of 25 Americans each day. As Colorado Media Matters has noted, Boyles has falsely claimed that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported the dubious statistic.

During his October 20 show, Boyles read a March 27 NewsMax article, titled “Justice Dept. Figures on Incarcerated Illegals,” that quoted a March 22, 2005, Investor's Business Daily editorial:

BOYLES: The United States Justice Department estimates 270,000 illegal immigrants have served jail time nationally in the year 2003. That's the last numbers I could find.

CUTLER: Right.

BOYLES: Of those, 108,000 were in California. Some of the estimates -- from the U.S. Justice Department, and for the guys at Media Matters, that's where it's comes from -- shows illegals now make up half of California's prison population, creating a massive criminal subculture that strains the state budgets and creates a nightmare for local police forces.

Indeed, The New York Times reported June 20 that "[a]ccording to the Justice Department, 270,000 illegal immigrants spent time in state and local prisons and jails in the 2004 fiscal year" and that 108,247 of those were in California.

However, neither the NewsMax article nor the Investor's Business Daily editorial provided a source for the separate statement that "[s]ome estimates show illegals now make up half of California's prison population," and statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation contradict such estimates.

The U.S. Department of Justice reported at mid-year 2005 that 16,613 noncitizens (legal and illegal) were incarcerated in California prisons, representing 10.1 percent of the total California prison population. And, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's Jail Profile Survey: Annual Report 2005, “The percentage of criminal/illegal aliens in California jails has continued to drop since 2000, and now stands at 10.6% of the total ADP [average daily jail population] (versus 14% in 2000).” The report showed that, of the average daily population of 80,725 during the fourth quarter of 2005, 8,523 were “criminal/illegal aliens.”

From the NewsMax article:

As Investors Business Daily reported in March 2005:

“The U.S. Justice Department estimated that 270,000 illegal immigrants served jail time nationally in 2003. Of those, 108,000 were in California. Some estimates show illegals now make up half of California's prison population, creating a massive criminal subculture that strains state budgets and creates a nightmare for local police forces.”

Boyles also cited the “Center for Immigration Studies, June, 2004” as reporting that "[i]n Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide target illegals" and "[u]p to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants in Los Angeles (17,000) are for illegals." These statistics appeared in an article by Heather Mac Donald on CIS's website and have since been challenged by the Los Angeles Times and conservative columnist Linda Chavez. The Times reported, “One LAPD officer cited the same factoid in the National Review earlier this year, saying that it's specific to 'the first half of 2004'. But Jane Robison, press secretary for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, told us that the D.A. does not keep track of this number; a representative with Detective Headquarters said the same." And Chavez wrote:

I've been tracking this particular factoid for a while, since it crops up over and over again, and I've even exchanged e-mails with the source, Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute. In 2004, Mac Donald wrote an article for the Manhattan Institute's City Journal, “The Illegal Alien Crime Wave,” in which she first used this statistic.

The problem is, the Los Angeles Police Department doesn't collect information on the immigration status of criminals, much less suspects, so there is no database of how many illegal aliens are wanted on outstanding homicide warrants. When I asked Mac Donald to provide her source, she said, “The LAPD fugitive warrants section gave me that figure.” I don't doubt Mac Donald's word -- she is an old friend. Someone, Mac Donald won't say who, undoubtedly gave her this misinformation. But several calls to the LAPD elicited the same response: We don't collect such information -- which was borne out by searching all available databases and talking to respected criminologists.

Finally, Boyles read from the Frosty Wooldridge article: “Few citizens realize that 29 percent of criminals filling jails across this country are illegals.” But Boyles misread Wooldridge, who actually wrote, “Few Americans realize that 29 percent of criminals filling jails across this country are illegal and legal immigrants” [emphasis added].

From the Wooldridge article on NewsWithViews.com:

Few Americans realize that 29 percent of criminals filling jails across this country are illegal and legal immigrants. They cost US taxpayers $1.6 billion annually. The ones that suffer from tuberculosis or hepatitis spread those diseases to other inmates. This causes further medical costs into the millions.

Citing federal Bureau of Prisons data, an April 7, 2005, GAO study reported that in 2002, 2003, and 2004, the “percentage of all federal prisoners who are criminal aliens” (legal and illegal) was “about 27 percent.” The Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has reported lower numbers. According to the BJS, on June 30, 2004, “noncitizens” represented 20.3 percent of federal prisoners, down from 23.5 percent in 2003 and 25.0 percent in 2002.

According to the BJS, 6.4 percent of all state and federal prison inmates at midyear 2005 were “noncitizens” -- not just illegal immigrants -- down from 6.5 percent in 2004, 6.6 percent in 2003, and 6.9 percent in 2002.

From the October 20 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

BOYLES: There are people that exist out here on a website who say the things that you say about crimes committed by illegal immigrants, the statements that you have made are false. I'm fascinated by these sort of open borders guys that, for ever the reasons, the attempts, I guess, are to deflect the crimes that are perped. And there's been a statistic that's been floating around about the amount of illegal immigrants in this country, how many crimes, or how many deaths they cause a year, or a week, or crimes that they do. So, first of all, Michael, thank you for coming on the show.

CUTLER: As always, thank you, Peter, for having me.

BOYLES: Yourself -- Talk about the center, and then, if you would, talk about yourself.

CUTLER: OK, good. Look, the bottom line is that people who are here illegally -- and I prefer to use the term “illegal aliens” -- the term “alien” has become the new “N-word” of our culture, but the reality is “alien” is not a pejorative, it's a legal term. In fact, the law defines what an alien is, and, according to the Immigration and Nationality Act, which are the immigration laws that the United States is supposed to enforce and apparently has not been, states that an alien is any person who is not a citizen or a national of the United States. And, in point of fact, when we, as Americans, travel outside the United States we become aliens. So, it's not a pejorative.

BOYLES: Um, hmm.

CUTLER: And there's also a presumption that many of the open borders folks make -- in fact, I just did a debate yesterday with [immigration attorney] Margaret Stock -- where you would listen to her and have the idea that aliens from anywhere in the world have an inherent right to be here, period.

BOYLES: Yeah.

CUTLER: And it's kind of like saying that anybody who likes what your house looks like has the right to demand you open the door and let them in. It doesn't work that way. But people come here in violation of law, they're dealing with criminals and often they become involved in a criminal culture. And the culture that they come from, the countries that they come from, very often are very violent. If you look at MS-13, which is a very violent gang, has its origins in El Salvador, the background of El Salvador is one of civil war and extreme violence, dead bodies lying in the streets. [clears his throat] Pardon me. When you grow up in that environment as a kid, that environment is going to have an impact on your perceptions of reality. You know, it's the old argument about nature/nurture. You come from a country where there's extreme violence, you will become extremely violent. And then when you come to the United States, where we have a tradition of law and order and supposedly respect for the law, you become a pariah. And, I mean, that's just the sad reality. In an ideal world these other countries would have much better ways of life for their people, they wouldn't have to flee the grinding poverty and come here, but the reality is that when you're exposed to that level of violence early on -- and I'm not a criminologist, but I did take some criminology classes back in college -- it would seem to me that this has a lifelong impact on how you do business, what it is to be a man. In the United States, you have a disagreement with your neighbor, you go to court, you sue him, you work things out; that's fine. In parts of the world if you're really a man and someone does something that insults your manhood, you kill him, or you beat him to a bloody pulp. And, if you come to our country and you carry with you that tradition of violence, then we've got a problem. And, on top of it, alien smugglers very often will smuggle anything or anybody for the right price. Often we find illegal aliens are being used as mules to bring drugs into the United States to kind of sweeten the load --

BOYLES: Oh, sure.

CUTLER: Or the profit margins for the smugglers.

BOYLES: Sure. Oh, indeed.

CUTLER: So we've got a real problem from so many different perspectives here.

BOYLES: Let us look -- I -- because of their -- there is an organization here, and you can -- there is a couple things. But they're called Media Matters, and they have taken up banners on the -- I guess it's at the Rocky Mountain News and Westword -- and saying that we have had, I don't know, four or five people on who have talked about crimes committed by illegals, and they put a stamp on their website that says that those statements are false. So, I spent yesterday -- I spent -- two days ago, by the way, looking at numbers, and let me give you, and you tell me, if you would, elaborate on them.

CUTLER: Sure.

BOYLES: The United States Justice Department. This is a GAO number. The United States Justice Department estimates 270,000 illegal immigrants have served jail time nationally in the year 2003. That's the last numbers I could find.

CUTLER: Right.

BOYLES: Of those, 108,000 were in California. Some of the estimates -- from the U.S. Justice Department, and for the guys at Media Matters, that's where it's comes from -- shows illegals now make up half of California's prison population, creating a massive criminal subculture that strains the state budgets and creates a nightmare for local police forces. Now I cite the Urban Institute Study, and Center for Immigration Studies, and Steven Camorata notes in 2004: Roughly 17 percent of the prison populations in the federal level are illegal aliens. It's the huge number since illegals only account for, according to the government, 3 percent of the total population. Which is a number that you and I would probably disagree is true.

CUTLER: Right. Um, hmm. [unintelligible] and I have disagreed about the total number.

BOYLES: Yeah. The Federation of American Immigration Reform turns to the Justice Department to get their statistics on criminal aliens. And they report: In March of 2000, Congress made public Department of Justice statistics -- they were then turned over to us -- over the previous five years. Now, mind you, this is March of 2000. The INS -- this was before they were ICE --

CUTLER: Um, hmm.

BOYLES: -- released 35,000 criminal aliens instead of deporting them.

CUTLER: Um, hmm.

BOYLES: Over 11,000 of that 35,000 were released went on to commit serious crimes, over 1,800 of those which were violent, including 98 homicides and 142 sexual assaults, and 44 kidnappings. Now, that's six years ago.

CUTLER: Right.

BOYLES: 2001 the Supreme Court makes a decision, the INS was forced to release into our society 3,000 criminal aliens who collectively had been convicted of 125 homicides, 387 sex assaults, and 772 assaults. Up to one-third of the U.S. federal prison population is now non-citizens. Now, this is 2001.

CUTLER: Right.

BOYLES: My source, Media Matters, is the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Now, as to the 'hard-working' claim, the CIS notes: The proportion of immigrant-headed households using at least one major welfare program is now 24.5 percent compared to 16.3 percent for native households.

CUTLER: Right.

BOYLES: Investor's Business Daily -- this is for the folks at Media Matters -- concurs: Once illegals get here, they are 50 percent more likely to be on welfare than citizens. The Center for Immigration Studies, June, 2004: In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide target illegals. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants in Los Angeles, 17,000, are for illegals. March 25, 2005: Few citizens realize that 29 percent of criminals filling jails -- look at the number as it escalates -- across this country are illegals. They cost taxpayers 1.6 billion dollars annually. The ones that suffer from tuberculosis or hepatitis spread those diseases to other inmates in prison. This causes further medical costs to the millions. Department of Justice statistic.

CUTLER: Um, hmm.

BOYLES: Anything there you disagree with?

CUTLER: Well, you know, look, we're getting hammered from so many directions where illegal immigration is concerned. But then you have to look at those people who advocate for them. I mean, some people truly believe in what they're doing, but I think there's a lot of money to be made in this deal. You know, “There's gold in them thar hills,” as they used to say.

Colorado Media Matters originally incorrectly identified Boyles's guest as Mike McGarry of the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform (CAIR). In fact, the guest was Michael Cutler, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies. Colorado Media Matters regrets the error and has apologized to Mr. McGarry.