(Illegal) Immigration Decreases, but Tensions Remain High

[alp227]

Source: NY Times

PHOENIX — The impact of steep declines in the number of migrants illegally crossing the border with Mexico in recent years has rippled across Arizona and other border states, with federal and local law enforcement seeing big drops in crime related to illegal immigration.

In Arizona, federal agents have found far fewer drop houses, where smugglers stash border crossers. Police chiefs in Arizona cities say their crime rates are low and are falling, along with the numbers and costs of illegal immigrants coming through their jails.

Federal officials met with state and local police departments on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Border Security Expo in the convention hall in downtown Phoenix. They broadly agreed that the decrease in illegal crossers —down to about 340,000 migrants apprehended in 2011 from a peak of 1.1 million in 2005 — has lightened the workload for the police, but has also brought worrisome changes in the type of crimes they confront.

While they no longer see huge flows of illegal migrants heading for low-wage work in the United States, federal and local officials said they now faced smaller numbers of more determined and potentially more dangerous crossers, including migrants carrying illegal drugs.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/us/illegal-migration-from-mexico-falls-but-local-fears-persist.html

---

But still, expect ignorant people on comments sections on mainstream news sites STILL to howl about "illegals on welfare", "illegals in the public schools", "anchor babies", and "Obama isn't securing the borders" and getting many up votes...

[Loudmxr]

1. That is because of all the headless bodies and rising crime rate that ...goes down?

Maybe its because they are brown and Catholic.

Quick alert Santorum about anti-Catholic bigotry!!

He is losing the Catholic vote. So who the heck cares about Catholic brown people!!

Who look kinda like... First Americans.

[EFerrari]

2. "Border Security Expo"? Really?

Mexican immigration is at a 60 year low so the people who line their pockets hyping this situation now have to claim that although traffic is down, the remaining "crimes" are more dangerous.

Be afraid!

Crime in Arizona Decreased During Last Four Years
April 18, 2011
By Charles August

While many Arizonan Sheriffs claim crime along the border is an epidemic of violence and mayhem, the facts do not bear out the hysteria.

Karina Salazar of the Arizona-Sonora News Services, writes that: “Crime statistics from the FBI confirm that the drug violence occurring in Sonora is not spilling over into Arizona.

In fact, violent crime rates in Arizona have decreased in the last four years. Violent crime rate per 100,000 people dropped 7 percent from 2007 to 2008 and more than 15 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to the FBI.”

snip

Local police say the same thing. “I keep telling people that the rhetoric, what you hear, that we’re dodging bullets, is just not happening,” said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada.

http://bisbee.net/wp/bisbee-today/crime-in-arizona-decreased-during-last-four-years

[hjdxfgwe]

3. Spam deleted by OKNancy (MIR Team)

[Vattel]

4. Fuck all those who use this issue to spread fear and hate.

[sofa king]

5. And GUESS WHO SOLVED THE PROBLEM?

All it took, as many of the observers right here at DU pointed out for years, was for the President to focus enforcement on the employers of illegal immigrants:

http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/05/30/illegal_immigrants_obama_targets_employers_instead_of_workers_bu.html

In less than a year, the procedure showed better results than the racist button-pushing of every Republican Presidential candidate since Richard Nixon.

Republicans cannot take one shred of credit for it either, because President Obama was forced to take the procedural course thanks to Republican refusal to pass any legislation at all which might have actually addressed the problem.

I'm guessing immigration is going to be avoided like the plague for the rest of this year, because since mid-2001 the Department of Homeland Security has created a laundry list of offending employers, and I'll be willing to bet that those employers overwhelmingly back Republican candidates.