Let's not read too much into El Paso's low crime rate

The other day NewmarksDoor spotlighted a 2009 article at Reason.com titled The El Paso Miracle which tries to explain that a low crime rate in El Paso is because of the high percentage of illegal immigrants.

It that's the case, the same should be true of other border cities. The Texas Department of Public Safety's recent crime report say this: "The murder rate for Texas in 2008 was 5.6 murders for every 100,000 persons ..."

Looking at some specific cities we learn that the murder rate per 100,000 person for that year was the following for these border cities:

El Paso 2.8
Brownsville 2.3
Laredo 4.5
Harlingen 6.2

So it's difficult to make a generalization about the border cities, which all presumably have a high illegal immigrant population. If they do have a crime rate lower than cities farther north it could be that the border itself is keeping a lot of the crime on the other side. There's no dispute that Nuevo Laredo and Juarez have dangerously high murder rates. And in spite of El Paso's claim of a low crime rate, they do seem to have a problem with rocks being hurled across the river. Shoot a rock chunker and create an international incident.

Immigration is a hot button issue these days, and both sides have their reasons. But it really boils down to politics. Democrats want an influx of new voters they view as friendly to their candidates. And Republicans are wary of an electorate raised and educated, or uneducated, under the Mexican style of government.

So here's a compromise immigration reform proposal. Go ahead and let immigrants come in to work if they want to. And give them some sort of citizenship status that doesn't entitle them to vote. That should satisfy everyone. Republicans, it is charged, only want the cheap labor the immigrants provide. Democrats should appreciate the opportunity to help underprivileged people. Anyone who doesn't like the non-voting status has thus admitted the true motive is the desire for political power.

Comments

[Eric]

I have a friend whose job requires that he spend 50% of his time in El Paso. He told me last week that he feels much safer in El Paso than he did five years ago, and attributed it to the ubiquitous presence of officers from a variety of state and federal law enforcement agencies. He said that car thefts are almost non-existent now; it wasn't that long ago that El Paso had the reputation of being the auto theft capital of the world.

I realize that this is just anecdotal, but it's also the first time I've heard from someone who's got credible first hand experience.

(He also said he wouldn't set foot in Juarez for Any. Reason. Whatsoever. So, some things haven't changed.)

[Geo]

That's very interesting, Eric. I had not thought about the various officers around town. That the presence of law enforcement serves as a deterrent to law breakers is fairly widely believed, and this appears to be confirmation.

El Paso and Juarez are like one big city with a good and bad part of town but with a national border and a small river separating them.

[ghd IV Styler]

oh so funny* Everything is lively and lovely