Foreign Criminals Coming To America Due To Lax Laws

Highlights

Per the Daily Mail and the FBI, foreign criminals are coming to America because they believe that laws and enforcement have changed.

If foreign criminals believe that America has become easy pickings, is there any doubt that domestic offenders don’t have the same beliefs?

“It’s clear what we are confronting: A perception among criminals that there are no consequences, even for serious crime,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell.

Author

Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.

Retired federal senior spokesperson. Thirty-five years of directing award-winning public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed multiple times by every national news outlet. Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council. Former Adjunct Associate Professor of criminology and public affairs-University of Maryland, University College. Former advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Former advisor to the “McGruff-Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. Certificate of Advanced Study-Johns Hopkins University. Former police officer. Aspiring drummer.

Author of ”Success With The Media: Everything You Need To Survive Reporters and Your Organization” available at Amazon and additional booksellers.

Article (all quotes edited for brevity)

The Daily Mail-UK offers an article on foreign criminals coming to America because of a perception of lax laws and enforcement.

The debate is whether changes or reforms in the American criminal justice system prompt criminality. According to the FBI, there are crime tourists coming here because they believe that their chances for apprehension are slight and if apprehended, the consequences are few. Relaxed bail laws are cited.

Daily Mail Article (edited for brevity)

‘Crime tourists’ from South America are being blamed for at least two recent burglaries in an affluent San Francisco Bay area community
Similar groups have struck in Indiana, Texas, New York, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina
The gangs target wealthy neighborhoods in places with lax criminal justice laws to conduct their home burglaries, police say
Criminals apprehended by police for similar schemes have hailed primarily from Chile and Colombia

Gangs of South American ‘crime tourists’ are being blamed for at least two home burglaries in California this week – as well as similar raids across the country in recent months, including sprees in Indiana, Texas, New York, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

The criminals target wealthy neighborhoods in places with lax criminal justice laws to conduct their home burglaries, before returning home with the loot while out on bail, according to police.

‘Of the eight burglaries this month, we suspect six were committed by organized Chilean gang members operating out of the Los Angeles area,’ Atherton Police Chief Steven McCully told KPIX. ‘Chilean gang member burglaries have been a problem throughout San Mateo County and nationwide.’

Reasons Why

Law enforcement experts say the foreign cells of professional burglars – mostly from Columbia and Chile – enter the country illegally or exploit a 2014 visa waiver program intended to spur tourism from dozens of trusted countries.

The Electronic System for Travel Authorization allows citizens from 40 nations to be prescreened to travel to the U.S. for tourism or business for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa, a process that lets travelers undergo less scrutiny to enter the country

After entering the country, they reportedly carry out strings of break-ins and other crimes, bringing home up to hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen goods, the FBI estimates.