Crime Rates at Border

08 | 02 | 2011

 USA Today & MexicoToday.org

Crime Rates in Ohio Are Higher Than Crime Rates in U.S. Border Cities

Sun, 2011-06-12, MexicoToday.org
While some alarmists raise false concerns about spillover violence, a recent article in El Paso Times reported that more data has been collected showing that U.S. cities near the border of Mexico “have some of the lowest crime rates in the nation.”
The following 2010-2011 Crime Rankings Survey conducted by CQ Press compares U.S.-Mexico border cities’ crime rates to the crime rates in Ohio’s six largest cities.
Some Congressmen want to ensure that these statistics are better publicized.  They note that border violence is basically non-existent and the numbers firmly prove that cities near the border are not more dangerous than other cities in the U.S.
U.S. Representative Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, talked about crime rates in Ohio and said that Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner’s “own district in Dayton, Ohio, saw more homicides in 2009 and 2010 than Texas’ four largest border cities combined and Dayton’s population of 141,500 is only about one-tenth of the size by comparison.”
Additionally, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano keeps reiterating that the U.S.-Mexico border has never been more secure than it is today.
U.S. HIGHEST CRIME RATE
Ohio
7. Cleveland
20. Dayton
24. Cincinnati
27. Toledo
37. Canton
47. Akron
49. Columbus
Major border cities
144. Laredo
204. Yuma
221. San Diego
275. El Paso
291. McAllen
304. Brownsville

USA Today Study: Border Cities Safer Than Most U.S. Cities, Crime Rates Declining

July 17, 2011
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.

Sources:
MexicoToday.org
USA Today
El Paso Times