On a bright day in late January, hundreds of Tucsonans gathered to wish Gabrielle Giffords well as she left town to rehabilitate from a bullet wound to the head, while hundreds more gathered to mourn the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, who was gunned down in the line of duty.
Within a few days, Shawna Forde went on trial for the crime of orchestrating a double-murder that included the execution of a 9-year-old girl in Arivaca. And the still-unsolved murder of Cochise County rancher Rob Krentz continues to cast a pall nearly a year after it occurred. These sensational, tragic events have helped to fuel a growing public perception that our border region is rampant with crime and violence.
The problem with this perception is that it has little to do with reality. By any measure, the national hysteria regarding the “invasion” of our borderlands by big brown bogeymen from the south is nothing more than politically charged hot air.
In a calculated public-relations maneuver, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano chose El Paso, Texas, as the site for a major speech on the matter, a place recognized by crime statisticians as the safest large city in the country. You read that correctly—right across the river from Ciudad Juarez, the most dangerous city in Mexico, you’ll find the safest city in the United States. As Secretary Janet noted, El Paso is no exception; San Diego and other border cities rank near the top as well. Overall, crime in the border region has been stable or falling since the mid-1990s; violent crime in particular has dropped 30 percent.
Even Border Patrol agents who work in the so-called invasion zone are far safer than the average cop on the beat. Agent Terry was the first in 12 years to die in the line of duty, and just the 10th in the past century—only three of whom were murdered. Meanwhile, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, on average, a police officer is killed in the line of duty in this country every other day. Eleven were shot in one 24-hour period last month. Some quick math, allowing for the larger sample size—900,000 police officers of various stripes versus 21,000 Border Patrol agents—indicates that it’s at least 30 times safer to work at keeping the peace on the border.
Why the false perception? The reaction to Krentz’s murder is instructive. In the immediate aftermath, Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever—long a loud voice among the “border invasion” brigade—blamed the crime on an illegal immigrant. Despite the absurdity of Dever’s claim that his officers were able to track the suspected perpetrator from the site of the crime more than 20 miles back to the Mexican border in a single night, and notwithstanding later corrective statements that the investigation was focused on a suspect located in the United States, most news stories referencing the crime continue to slavishly repeat Dever’s unsubstantiated assertion.
Even if Krentz were killed by someone crossing the border illegally, according to the Border Patrol, he would have been the first American citizen in the busy Tucson sector in 10 years to suffer such a fate. In fact, immigrants—including those who are undocumented—commit crimes at a rate that is a small fraction of that of U.S. citizens. This is due at least in part to the fact that immigrants risk much more than the usual fines or jail time associated with a crime: They also risk deportation and the loss of their American Dream. Given that more than 2,000 undocumented migrants have perished chasing that dream across the border, and many thousands more are targeted by smugglers and bandits every year, they are far more likely to be victims than perpetrators.
Simply put, “spillover violence”—as defined by craven politicians and talk-radio blowhards—is a myth. But if you want to talk about the thousands of guns, billions of drug-purchasing dollars, and militaristic interdiction strategies that spill over the border from the United States and fuel violence toward Mexicans, you might start to make some sense.
Unfortunately, bad policy follows false perception. A small border town in California, desperate for an economic infusion, recently agreed to host a $100 million “drug-war garrison,” one focus of which will be the deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles—infamously known as “drones”—along the border.
Considering that one of these little beasties already crashed in somebody’s backyard in El Paso a couple of months ago, maybe it is only a matter of time before the safest city in America—and the border region it’s a part of—become a lot less safe.
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2011.
Thanks for this deep breath of truth.
Thanks for the reality check. It’s interesting to note how most people/politicians blowing hot air about border violence either live in Ohio or live in Phoenix and have never set foot near the border, on either side.
Such a relief to read. This kind of makes up for all the fear mongering that Leo Banks stirs up. The biggest problem I see is that while Randy’s factual article is in the opinion section, Leo’s opinions and exaggerations get passed of as news. It’s time the Weekly gets its act together and starts printing facts about life along the border.
This article is nothing but politically correct and hogwash! Why don’t you all put some boots on the ground on the Border and live down there for a while and you might just change your mind with a real dose of reality! I’ve been there and done just that and had to leave my home because it was too dangerous to live there any more… awakened by AK-47’s at night in the parking areas just 45 steps away which became a staging area for drug smuggling and human trafficking… knocks on my door at all hours of the day and night with illegals desperate for food and water… responding to a plea from a desperate man whose wife lay nearby nearly dead from a compound fracture on her foot… bleeding with a bone sticking out… they thought they were in New York… that’s what their coyote told them that they paid some $3,000… and they were 30 miles from the Border! I am so tired of people who haven’t lived it having such strong opinions and ready to attack those that live it every day of their lives without any assistance from Washington DC! Wake up America… maybe you will when it comes to your neighborhood!
OK, so the Tucson sector shouldn’t worry, since there are border problems in ALL the border cities, and it isn’t a border problem at all, after all.
And it is all ‘politically charged hot air’ – so we don’t need any of these proposed laws and enforcements, since there is no real problem anyway. BUT! Imagine if congress wanted to pass a law against Martians peeing on the capitol building. Where there ARE NONE! What harm could such a law cause? If there really ARE NONE??!?
Hey LawelessBorders… the piece was on border violence on the U.S. side… not about desperate people on your doorstep. Did you even read the piece? The reality of relatively and surprisingly low amounts of violence on the U.S. side is fact. Yes, there are lots of starving, freezing and hurting migrants… nobody is disputing that.
I bet I’ve spent way more time on the border than you… I’ve seen plenty of Narcos with guns in Sonora… loads of drugs… Ten of thousands of migrants…. this is reality. No amount of Border Patrol or walls will stop it. The only thing that will stop the drugs is if you stop buying them. The only thing that will stop migrants is less disparity of wealth.
Less disparity of wealth will happen when a Guest worker program is the law. And drugs are legalized with treatment centers available to addicts.
Do you think I was talking about the other side of the line? I read the pathetic article that is just plain hot air from someone sitting at a desk listening to Janet Girl… she couldn’t do the job when when she lived in AZ and she sure isn’t doing anything to keep our nation safe, from DC! And I’ll challenge you to how much time I’ve spent on the border… in the layup areas… watching incursions as they go done… and I wasn’t talking about the “poor migrants”… and if you think for one moment that the violence isn’t on the US side of the Border then you must live on another planet… and, yes, everyone in the Tucson Sector, please sleep well tonight… after all… it’s all safe out there!
I am not sure where you got your figures for Border Patrol deaths, but here is the actual list of deaths:
Aguilar, Luis-January 19, 2008
Blue, John- October 4, 1973
DeBates, George- December 19, 2004
Duran, Roberto- May 6, 2002
Epling, James- December 16, 2003
Fritz, Karl- October 4, 1973
Greenig, Nicholas- March 14, 2006
Haynie, Lester- June 14. 1985
Kirpnick, Alexander- June 3, 1998
Lugo, Richard- May 14, 1967
Magsamen, SEan- March 28, 2005
McKee, William- April 23, 1926
Ochoa, Victor- March 11, 1983
Parker, Lon- July 25, 1926
Pringle, George- December 28, 1940
Roberson, David- June 1989
Webb, David- November 3, 2006
That is seven deaths in the last ten years. However, Border Patrol is not the only agency to loose men along the border.
U.S. Customs:
Bokinskie, Charles- April 24, 1974
Bristow, Clyde- January 12, 1932
Daniels, William June 9, 1885
Dixon, Lewis- April 24, 1974
Friedli, Gary- March 4, 1998
Miles, Glen- February 21, 1986
Nielson, Robert- June 18,2002
Trask, Jewel- April 9, 1947
and
DEA Agent Richad Fass- killedJune 30, 1994 by Mexican drug dealers
U.S. Immigration Agent Wiliam Phillips January 7, 1970
U.S. Parks Ranger Kristopher Eggle killed by drug smugglers in the Organ Pipe National Park on August 9, 2002
These are only the officers who died in ARizona, you should also add in California, New Mexico and Texas.
You should research your facts before throwing out numbers to justify your position on the law enforcement danger along the border. You can find all these officers and 290 more listed in my book “The Last Full Measure: Law Enforcement Deaths in Arizona. There are even more officers’ whose deaths are a direct result of undocumented aliens in this country.