USA Today has just concluded an indepth analysis of crime statistics along the U.S.-Mexico border using a decade of information from multiple law enforcement agencies. And what did they find?
Apparently, crime along the border has been declining for quit some time and the border is ‘statistically safer on average’ than most other U.S. cities. These findings of course have been proven by other studies it’s just the political rhetoric that is not reflecting these facts.
The repeated demand for a secure border is so often used as the cause for not implementing immigration reform that more than 80% of all American’s believe the border is unsafe and lawless and therefore demand the border be secured before discussing immigration reform.
Irresponsible and untrue statements, such as those made by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer about ‘headless’ bodies found at the border, do not help the border city image.
The USA Today study shows that the murder rate for border cities (those cities 50 miles or less from Mexico) were lower ‘nearly every year from 1998 to 2009’ compared to the other state averages.
In addition, kidnapping from drug cartels along the border were at 25 in 2010 down from 62 in 2009 and thus far in 2011 there have been 10 confirmed cases.
