While everyone is freaking out about the CR, we thought we'd do what we usually do when everyone zig, which is to say, we zag. We have some CR stuff below but we already wrote about that yesterday and not much has changed (Dems are a no, and a handful of holdout Rs will make the vote a squeaker).

So here's a thought: representatives of so-called "sanctuary" jurisdictions, where authorities choose not to report illegal aliens to proper authorities, will say that this is a good policing measure, because if illegal aliens are afraid that by talking to police they will be reported, they will stop working with police. Sounds commonsensical. Is it actually true?

Funny you should ask! Because the good folks at CIS, in this case Jessica M. Vaughan, Steven A. Camarota, and Karen Ziegler, have produced a long report on precisely that question.

The bottomline? There's no evidence for the assertion.

Using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) collected from 2017-2019, the authors found that immigrants (both naturalized citizens and non-citizens) report crimes to police at rates equal to or higher than native-born Americans.

Their analysis reveals that 62% of serious crimes against immigrants were reported to police, compared to 53% for native-born Americans. For serious violent crimes, the reporting rate was 61% for immigrants versus 49% for native-born victims. These patterns held true across various demographic groups, including Hispanic non-citizens (a proxy for undocumented immigrants), immigrant women, and younger immigrants. The data showed no evidence of lower reporting rates in regions with stronger immigration enforcement or smaller communities.

When asked why they didn't report crimes, only about 1% of immigrant victims cited concerns about police bias, harassment, or being advised not to report—in other words, responses that might indicate fear of deportation. Instead, immigrants gave similar reasons as native-born Americans for not reporting crimes, such as believing police wouldn't think it important enough or that the crime was too minor.

In other words, there is no empirical support for the theory that cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities suppresses crime reporting among immigrant communities. Now you know.

Policy News You Need To Know

#TheEconomy — President Trump is set to attend a meeting with representatives of the Business Roundtable, on camera, today at 5pm. Given the ongoing market crash, it should be something to watch.

#Tariffs #TheEconomy — Meanwhile, President Trump's tariffs are set to come into effect at midnight tonight.

#Tariffs — Speaking of, AEI's Michael R. Strain has been one of the most consistent and forceful opponents of tariffs out there (which is saying a lot). One thing we like about him is that he brings data, and not just Econ 101, to these debates. Here he is: "The 2018-19 trade war failed to revive domestic manufacturing and actually reduced jobs in the broad manufacturing sector." Here's more.

#Immigration — The deportation of Columbia "pro-Palestinian" (and apparently pro-Hamas, or at least not-too-unhappy about October 7) activist Mahmoud Khalil is getting the left atwitter, especially given that he had a green card. Also some on the right, because of a well-intentioned support for free speech. All of that being said, it is true that according to US law, "any alien who […] endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization" is inadmissible. It's also important to remind the public and the world that only US citizens have a right to be on US soil. Legal immigrants are still guests.

#DOGE — EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin: "I am cancelling over 400 DEI and Environmental Justice grants across 9 grant programs totaling $1.7 billion"

#Shutdown — The vote on the Speaker's CR is set to go down tonight. It should be a squeaker. Here's our briefing about that, from yesterday.

#Reg — We typically enjoy CEI's "This week in ridiculous regulations." Apparently, there are fewer under Trump, but not none by any means: "Agencies issued 45 final regulations last week, after 33 the previous week. That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every three hours and 44 minutes. With 458 final regulations so far in 2025, agencies are on pace to issue 2,602 final regulations this year. For comparison, there were 3,248 final regulations in 2024, 3,018 in 2023, and 3,168 in 2022."

#FDA — Did you know that nearly half of the FDA's budget comes from user fees, which the FDA charges to drug manufacturers? We did not. The FDA is able to do this thanks to the 1992 Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA). Cato's Michael Cannon has more.