1993. Dianne Feinstein says that illegal immigrants are abusing Medicaid and costing California hundreds of millions of dollars a year via the prison system. "About thirteen percent of the California prison population costing close to three hundred million dollars a year are illegal aliens." Our politicians and media like to claim that illegal immigrants commit crimes at a far lesser rate than American citizens. That talking point is based on studies that use extrapolations to estimate totals. They avoid looking at the actual demographics of state and federal prisons because the data does not support the narrative they want to push. In 2018 the Department of Homeland Security released a study that showed 1 in 5 inmates in the federal prison system were illegal immigrants. The study also showed that illegal immigrants in Arizona were twice as likely to commit crimes (not including the crime of coming here illegally) than American citizens. It's very strange that our elected officials like to push narratives that disparage their own people.