This just in.
Only one-fifth of those arrested are natives of the United States. Four-fifth are foreign-born immigrants. According to the New York Times:
Emigration has thrown upon our shores many vicious characters, and a still larger number of needy and ignorant persons, who, under the influence of over ten thousand [drug dealers] become recruits to the army of law-breakers.become recruits to the army of law-breakers.
The vast majority of immigrants are charged with and guilty of drug crimes. So says New York City’s quarterly police report.
From 1859.
By 1875, immigrants were 68 percent of those arrested. (Of course by then many of the “native-born” Americans were children of immigrants.)
Seventy-one percent of the immigrants arrested (and 41 percent of the total) were Irish. Germans–at 15 percent of immigrants and 8 percent of the total–were a distant second. African-Americans? 1.5 percent.
source: New York Times. November 19, 1859. “The Metropolitan Police: Quarterly Report of Superintendent Pillsbury.” pg. 1. And August 6, 1875. “Three Months’ Police Work: Quarterly Report of the Commissioners.” p. 10. “Drug dealers” replaced “grog-shops.” And the “drug crime” was the use of “spirituous liquors,” responsible for 84 percent of arrests, according to the 1859 report.]