Fact-Checking Common Misconceptions About Immigrants

Immigration Debate Clouded by Misinformation, Says Retired Healthcare Worker

Americans’ strong feelings about immigration are increasingly fueled by misinformation rather than facts, according to Mary Offutt, a retired nurse and paramedic from Deer Isle, Maine, who has extensive experience working with immigrant communities.

Offutt points to congressional gridlock as the root cause of the nation’s immigration challenges. The last significant immigration reform occurred in 1996 during President Clinton’s administration, when legislation increased border enforcement, mandated detention for certain offenses, and expanded grounds for deportation.

“Having been married to an immigrant, and worked as a nurse with immigrants and migrant farm workers, hearing the White House press secretary continually use the words ‘rapist,’ ‘murderer,’ ‘gang member’ to describe immigrants makes me wonder if we’re talking about the same people,” Offutt writes.

She emphasizes that contrary to popular rhetoric, research consistently shows that native-born U.S. citizens commit crimes at higher rates than immigrants—a fact she encourages skeptics to verify independently.

Recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Maine have primarily targeted African immigrants, a demographic Offutt notes is among the least likely to have criminal backgrounds. These immigrants typically undergo an extensive 18-36 month vetting process involving multiple international and U.S. agencies, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and various Department of Homeland Security divisions.

The heightened enforcement activities have created a climate of fear within immigrant communities, Offutt observes. Families face trauma, parent-child separations occur, and many immigrants are afraid to leave their homes—even to go to work. This disruption affects not only the targeted communities but also the broader economic ecosystem.

Citing the late chef Anthony Bourdain, Offutt highlights immigrants’ critical role in the American economy: “Our entire service economy—the restaurant business as we know it—in most American cities, would collapse overnight without Mexican workers.” Bourdain notably stated that in his two decades as a chef and employer, he never had an American applicant for positions like dishwashing or prep cooking.

Offutt also addresses constitutional considerations, noting that the Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791, guarantees rights to “the people,” not exclusively to “citizens”—a distinction central to criticism of Department of Homeland Security activities. Protesters represent a fraction of Americans who believe federal authorities must respect constitutional guarantees extended to anyone on U.S. soil.

The human element of enforcement practices particularly troubles Offutt. She describes concerning incidents where law-abiding immigrants have been forcefully detained by officers “wearing black pouring out of black SUVs,” with some individuals having no significant criminal history disappearing into the detention system.

She recounts a disturbing recent incident in Maine where enforcement officers allegedly pulled over a car, shattered the driver’s window, and removed a father, leaving behind a mother unable to drive and an infant covered in broken glass.

“Targeting brown and black people is all too familiar to me, someone who was raised in racism in the South,” Offutt writes. She contends that such enforcement efforts are misguided since immigrants statistically commit fewer crimes than native-born citizens.

The debate comes amid growing political polarization over immigration policy, with both major parties offering dramatically different approaches to border security and the treatment of migrants already in the country. Immigration remains a top voter concern heading into upcoming elections, with policy solutions increasingly difficult to implement in the divided political landscape.