The New Yorker – The real numbers on illegal immigration

In fact those numbers are surprising: they are sharply down, according to the Border Patrol—by more than sixty per cent since 2000, to five hundred and fifty thousand apprehensions last year, the lowest figure in thirty-five years. Illegal immigration, although hard to measure, has clearly been declining. The southern border, far from being “unsecured,” is in better shape than it has been for years—better managed and less porous. It has been the beneficiary of security-budget increases since September 11th, which have helped slow the pace of illegal entries, if not as dramatically as the economic crash did. Violent crime, though rising in Mexico, has fallen this side of the border: in Southwestern border counties it has dropped more than thirty per cent in the past two decades. It’s down in Senator McCain’s Arizona. According to F.B.I. statistics, the four safest big cities in the United States—San Diego, Phoenix, El Paso, and Austin—are all in border states.

via The New Yorker – The real numbers on illegal immigration. The New Yorker does some slapping around of politicians who just outright lie in an effort to create fear.


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2 responses to “The New Yorker – The real numbers on illegal immigration”

  1. John E. Bredehoft Avatar

    Perhaps the statistics do illustrate underlying patterns of immigration, but I don’t know if we can state that the border is less porous. It’s possible that the border is just as porous as before, only now everyone is moving across the border in a southward direction.

    1. Justin Yost Avatar

      Does that really make any logical sense, America even in the midst of a recession is still safer and considered to have more opportunities than Mexico by far. Even if you accept that everyone is moving across the border in a southward fashion it is true that there are today more resources devoted to protecting and securing the border than there was 9 years ago. That and the main point of the article was that violence on the border is lower than certain politicians make it out to be.

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