Running Head: IMMIGRATION AND CRIME

The Relationship between Crime and Immigration

Mariana Ruiz
The University of Texas at El Paso
English 1312

IMMIGRATION AND CRIME

The Relationship between Crime and Immigration

In recent years there has been a growing debate over the relationship between crime and
immigration in the United States. Recently, on his Presidential announcement speech, Donald
Trump spoke about some issues that concern him, one of them is immigration. According to
Time magazine (2015), he said, When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best.
Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. Even though these are claims
of a current Presidential candidate, there is research that proves the contrary. This issue has been
addressed by two different genres that prove that contrary to some peoples beliefs, immigration
and crime are indirectly related. Daniel Griswolds journal article, Higher Immigration, Lower
Crime, discusses the link between lowered crime rates and illegal immigration. The UTEP news
website article, Why Do Immigrant Neighborhoods Have Lower Crime Rates? by Lisa Y.
Garibay covers a research project about immigrant neighborhoods in El Paso. The analysis of
these two genres will include the audience and purpose, rhetorical issues, structure, and style and
language.
Audience and Purpose
The audience and purpose for each genre is different. One genres purpose is to share
research information with other scholars, and the other genre is trying to inform news to its
audience. The first genre, Daniel Griswolds journal article, Higher Immigration, Lower Crime
seeks to persuade the audience by showing evidence of rise of immigration during the 1990s
and how crime rates during this period went down. The UTEP news article, serves to inform the
audience about research that is being conducted in El Paso by students and professors from the
university. The intended audience for the journal article are scholars and researchers who might

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be conducting research over this topic. Students and professors can also form part of the
audience since they have access to the journal databases. The audience of this genre ties to its
purpose because the author is trying to convince other scholars that his information is the truth.
The UTEP news webpage mainly targets students and professors who are interested on
what happens in the university. El Paso locals can also be a part of the webpages audience since
it can be accessed by anyone. This genres purpose is to inform, by reporting the research that is
being conducted in UTEP, this news website creates general awareness for students and faculty.
Daniel Griswolds audience has to have some common knowledge about immigration, since he
discusses immigration history and policy. On the other hand, the audience for the news website
does not need any type of knowledge because it is an informative article.
The amount of time that the audience needs to spend on each genre is different. Scholars
who read Daniel Griswolds article should be spending five to seven minutes reading the article.
Considering that the journal article is addressed to scholar audiences the vocabulary is formal.
Griswold uses immigration terms such as The influential United States Immigration
Commission of 1907-11, also known as the Dillingham Commission (Griswold 2009, 43).
People who are not familiar with the immigration issue will have to spend a few more minutes to
reread some of the information that is presented. The audience for the news website will be
spending three to four minutes reading the information that is presented, plus an additional
minute to watch a YouTube interview that is included in the article. The vocabulary for this
genre is more informal than the journal article, but it is still academic English.
Both of these genres are talking about the same topic, immigration. However, one of
them tries to convince its audience that immigrants are the reason why crime rates are going
down. The other genre is informing the audience that someone is conducting research about why

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immigrant neighborhoods have low crime rates. Both sources present their information in
different ways.
Rhetorical Issues
Both genres present rhetorical issues, ethos, pathos, and logos. These rhetorical issues are
presented differently on each genre.
While both genres show credibility, ethos is more present on the journal article. The first
genre, Daniel Griswolds Higher Immigration, Lower Crime, establishes its credibility first of all
by being a journal article. This means that the article has been reviewed by other scholars,
making it a reliable source. In the article, Griswold includes direct quotations from different
crime reports and other articles. This tells the audience that the author has done research to
support his claims. The second source, which is the universitys news webpage, is a credible
source because this is the news source for students and faculty in UTEP. However, in the article
credibility is established by the interview videos of the professor that is conducting the research.
In the videos the professor talks about his project giving credibility to the article that was written
about him in the webpage.
Both genres utilize the emotional appeal to relate to their audiences; however, the news
webpage touches more on the pathos part of the rhetoric issues to appeal to its audience. In his
article, Griswold begins by saying This debate has a familiar ring to students of immigration
history (Griswold 2009, 43). By saying this, the author tries to make the audience feel related to
the information that is being presented. In the same way, the second genres author Lisa Garibay,
writes about the audience in a way that they can relate to the story she is writing about. In her
article she writes to her audience knowing that most of them can relate to what she is talking
about. Hitting close to home at the University is the impact this research had on the academic,

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personal and professional lives of the students who were involved as researchers. Most of these
students represent El Pasos working-class Hispanic population and many are from immigrant
families (Garibay 2015). Since many of the students at the university come from immigrant
families, this is something that is attractive for the audience to read, and they can feel related.
The logos part of the rhetorical issues is presented in different ways. The journal article
uses reason to persuade its audience by stating claims about immigration from the opposing side
and then presenting evidence from different sources to prove it wrong. Not only does Griswold
link the relationship between crime and immigration, but he also rejects the idea that illegal,
unskilled immigrants create an underclass by bringing poverty and crime. Griswold claims that
unskilled and uneducated immigrants seek to live a better life and therefore stay away from
crime. The website establishes its logical appeal by talking about a popular topic and
interviewing students and professors. The late rise in immigration and the connection with crime
being debated by many, led researchers from UTEP to research this topic, which made an
important article piece for the UTEP news website.
Structure and Delivery
The structure of this genres is similar because they are both articles; however, they have
some differences. The journal article is structured similar to the way newspaper articles are. It
has a big title, it is written in columns and it includes direct quotes. The webpage is written in
paragraphs and it has videos of interviews inserted between the paragraphs. It has a good length
and it is easy to read. The website includes links to other articles; however, it is not too crowded
or distracting.
Both of these genres have differences and similarities. The main difference between the
two genres is that Griswolds article is more objective in the sense that it is telling the results of

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the research he conducted. On the other hand, the webpage article is informing the audience
about research that is being conducted in the university and it is more subjective. The webpage
article includes the opinion of the author and it has more use of pathos. The two genres are
similar on the topic. They both agree that immigration and crime are indirectly related. Both
genres want their audiences to know that there is research about this topic.
Conclusion
After analyzing these two genres, their purpose, the targeted audience and the different
components that make part of the genres, we can conclude that Daniel Griswolds journal article
was better at presenting information about the relationship between crime and immigration. Both
the journal article and the news website were effective on delivering their message to the
audience, they have credible information and they were interesting to read. While both genres are
trying to raise awareness and inform their audience about the different issues on immigration,
Griswold remains ore objective when presenting his work.

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7
References

Garibay, L. (March 13 2015). UTEP news. Retrieved from http://news.utep.edu/?p=29309

Griswold, D. (2009). Higher immigration, lower crime. Commentary, 128(5), 42-46. Retrieved
from http://0search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=47221475&site=e
host-live&scope=site
Donald trump's presidential announcement speech. (2015, June 15). Time. Retrieved from
http://time.com/3923128/donald-trump-announcement-speech/