Border 'Mayhem'? An Illegal Immigration Fact Check Shows Violence Declining

Source: ABC News

...while several violent high-profile incidents in the Tucson, Arizona, sector have gained national attention and colored political rhetoric, an ABC News analysis of immigration and crime data, combined with interviews with law enforcement officials, shows something very different -- that violence and crime on the U.S. side of the 2,000-mile border with Mexico are generally on the decline.

By numbers alone, the border region appears, as Department of Homeland Security Secretary and former Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano put it, is as "secure now as it has ever been."

More than 646 miles of the border are protected by fence, according to Customs and Border Protection. More than 20,000 border patrol agents serve on the front lines -- an 80 percent increase over 2004 and the largest number in history.

The number of illegal immigrants apprehended along the border, which CBP uses to gauge the flow of migrants, is down nearly 55 percent from 2005. The agency captured 540,865 last year.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/illegal-immigration-fact-check-mayhem-us-mexico-border/story?id=10690707

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This probably won't stop the republican mantra of "secure the border" before they consider (which they never actually will) anything more comprehensive.

law and McCain's big lather about the need for the National Guard on the border? Is this all posturing and politics?

That may be what really defines a psychopath.

This past Sunday evening, a friend of mine was sitting in her living room in Gold Canyon, Arizona, watching the news on her television. She lives alone in a modest home in a gated community. Movement outside her sliding glass patio door caught her attention, and she glanced that direction to see a man trying to climb over her backyard fence. She went to the door, opened it, and confronted the not-quite-intruder, and he fled. She then went to her neighbor's house to warn them, and while there, she and the neighbor noticed the same man had made it into the yard of a third house and was getting a drink of water from a garden hose. They immediately called the Pinal County sheriff's department -- our xenophobic sheriff, Paul Babeu, is the one who made the commercial with McCain -- but by the time the deputy had arrived, the "illegal alien" had disappeared.

Conversation the next morning with a former county official revealed that allegedly the "coyotes" or smugglers have adopted a policy of dumping their human cargo along US 60 between Florence Junction and Apache Junction, an area that is unincorporated and less developed and therefore less patrolled by law enforcement. In particular, the Gold Canyon community -- unincorporated developments of mostly modestly upscale homes along US 60 -- provides both cover for fugitives and access to water. Obviously, also, at this time of the year when many winter-only residents have left the area for cooler climes, there are opportunities for burglary and theft.

The tale of this incident has spread like wildfire, and because the "victim" was someone who already fears "those criminals" who are coming across the border, the hysteria is escalating. Facts mean absolutely nothing to the people who are in the grip of a totally irrational fear. They have seen the face of the "enemy" and they are terrified. And when they are sufficiently terrified, they will do anything they are told if they think it will remove the threat.



Tansy Gold

Those criminals are stealing water from our very garden hoses! We gotta do something!

Shoot on sight!

There are many who agree with you -- but with no :sarcasm:




Tansy Gold

boondoggle for them, so they need something else to keep their base in a frenzy about.

Our LEGAL immigration system is broken.

It's almost impossible for an honest citizen of Mexico or of most other countries, to get permanent resident status in this country unless he or she has a family connection, a bunch of money, or a guarantee of a full-time job here.

I don't want people bypassing our country's immigration requirements, but the system we have now encourages it. In addition to the GOOD people who we should welcome to our country, the broken system allows ANYONE to get in. That includes people who carry infectious diseases like hepatitis B and active tuberculosis, fugitives from justice, convicted violent sexual predators, etc.

I want every person who comes into my country to be screened. I want it to be easy for decent people to come here for honest work.

If you've ever driven I-10 through El Paso. . . .. .



TG, who has

Yes, I have driven the width of Texas several times.

I live in San Diego, which is slightly closer to El Paso than Houston is.

It's mind-boggling driving all the way across CA, AZ, NM, getting to the State Line Cafe, and realizing that you're not quite half way to your destination yet.

"you curly-headed FUCK!!"