Native-born Americans are incarcerated at a much higher rate than immigrants.

Immigrants were much less likely to commit most violent crimes. Skye Gould/Business Insider

While the US's immigrant population has grown by more than 5 % over the last 25 years, violent crime has dropped dramatically, according to a 2015 report by the American Immigration Council, a

The foreign-born share of the US population has grown from 7.9% in 1990 to 13.1% in 2013. During the same period, FBI data shows that the violent crime rate has dropped 48%. That includes murer, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

The 2010 American Community Survey found that, over the last three decades, around 1.8% of immigrant males between 18-39 are incarcerated on average, compared with 3.3% of native-born males of the same age.

"This disparity in incarceration rates has existed for decades, as evidenced by data from the 1980, 1990, and 2000 decennial censuses," a 2015 update to an analysis of Census Bureau and crime rate statistics said. "In each of those years, the incarceration rates of the native-born were anywhere from two to five times higher than that of immigrants."

A study from the Pew Research Center found that first generation adolescent immigrants are almost ten % less likely to commit crimes than those who were born in the country — and while their children's crime rates rise to match those of non-immigrant peers, they never surpass them. An older report by a federally-funded criminal justice agency also found no link between immigration and crime.