Yostivanich

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 11^th, 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.