MEXICO CITY – It’s one of the safest parts of America, and it’s getting safer.

It’s the U.S.-Mexico border, and even as politicians say more federal troops are needed to fight rising violence, government data obtained by The Associated Press show it actually isn’t so dangerous after all.

The top four big cities in America with the lowest rates of violent crime are all in border states: San Diego, Phoenix, El Paso and Austin, according to a new FBI report. And an in-house Customs and Border Protection report shows that Border Patrol agents face far less danger than street cops in most U.S. cities.

The Customs and Border Protection study, obtained with a Freedom of Information Act request, shows 3 percent of Border Patrol agents and officers were assaulted last year, mostly when assailants threw rocks at them. That compares with 11 percent of police officers and sheriff’s deputies assaulted during the same period, usually with guns or knives.

In addition, violent attacks against agents declined in 2009 along most of the border for the first time in seven years. So far this year assaults are slightly up, but data is incomplete.

"The border is safer now than it’s ever been," said U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Lloyd Easterling.

He said one factor is that with fewer jobs available amid the U.S. recession, illegal immigration has dropped. And responding to security concerns after 9-11, the Border Patrol has doubled the number of agents in the region since 2004.

Nonetheless, border lawmakers and governors say their region is under siege and needs more troops.

"Violence in the vicinity of the U.S.-Mexico border continues to increase at an alarming rate. We believe that this violence represents a serious threat to the national security of the United States as well as a serious threat to U.S. citizens that live along the 1,969-mile long border," a dozen bipartisan members of Congress from border states wrote President Obama.

In Arizona, a stringent new immigration law takes effect next month, requiring police to question suspects’ immigration status if officers believe they’re in the country illegally. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said in a televised interview last weekend: "We are out here on the battlefield getting the impact of all this illegal immigration, and all the crime that comes with it."

In response to the concerns from the border states, Obama pledged to send 1,200 National Guard troops to help and spend an extra 0 million on border security.

His one-time rival for the presidency, Arizona Sen. John McCain, said he should send at least 6,000 troops, which are needed because he said Arizona leads the nation in marijuana seizures, suffered 368 kidnappings in 2008 and has the highest property crime rates in the U.S.

But FBI crime reports for 2009 says violent crime in Arizona declined. And violent crimes in southwest border counties are among the lowest in the nation per capita — they’ve dropped by more than 30 percent in the last two decades. Of America’s 25 largest cities, San Diego — with one out of four residents an immigrant — has the lowest number of violent crimes per capita.

Opponents of increased border security are frustrated by descriptions of a wave of violence when the statistics show the region to be relatively safe.

"Politicians are hyping up this incredible fear across the country about the border, but these numbers show these are lies being perpetrated on the American public," said immigrant advocate Isabel Garcia at Tucson-based Derechos Humanos. "The warnings about violence are just an excuse to crack down on migrants who want to work and be with their families."

Even residents of the border region who want more security are surprised by the talk of violence.

"I have to say, a lot of this is way overblown," said Gary Brasher of Tuboc, Arizona, who is president of the Coalition for a Safe and Secure Border.

So why send troops to the region?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100603/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_us_safer_border

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is head of the Maricopa Country Arizona District. There are a lot of illegal aliens being deported from that area, and they want his head for running them out of town. But that is not what is happening: Sheriff Joe is running criminals out of town.
===================================================

Maricopa County Arizona District

http://www.maricopacountyattorney.org/

Go to.. Illegal Immigration Crime Report

http://www.maricopacountyattorney.org/

The index is right there, but a peek at the data, which is specifically correct, is as follows. Keep in mind, the illegal aliens are only 9% of the population in that area. …9%….

On October 2nd, the Maricopa County Arizona District Arizona District Attorney’s office released crime statistics that prove this point. Overall, while illegals represent only 9% of the population in Maricopa County (including Phoenix, which until recently, was a sanctuary city) they are responsible for approximately 22% of the crimes committed. Here is a breakdown of statistics by crime category. Illegal aliens account for:

*33.5% of those sentenced for the manufacture, sale or transport of drugs.
*35.8% of those sentenced for kidnapping.
*20.3% of those sentenced for felony D.U.I.
*16.5% of those sentenced for violent crimes.
*18.5% of those sentenced for property crimes.
*44 of those sentenced for forgery and fraud.
*85.3% of those convicted of criminal impersonation or false ID.
*96% of those convicted of human smuggling.
==============================================

Shouldn’t we be avidly supporting Sheriff Joe Arapio???
The Dopers are using his town as a major narcotics avenue. There is a LOT of money trying to run him out of town. Do we want that?
The same guy that pulls people over for being brown, the same guy that cost Arizona tax payers millions, the same guy that segregates the Mexicans in his jail?
=========================
This very badly needs links, or it becomes simple bigotry. Research him, and while there are endless accusations, nothing shows that suggests the anti posts are correct. If they are correct.. I wouldn’t support him either. I don’t think they are.

PHOENIX — As the days tick down until the Arizona immigration law takes effect, the state stands as a monument to the anger over illegal immigration that is present in so many places.

The anger has been simmering for years, and erupted into a full-blown fury with the murder of a prominent rancher on the border earlier this year. The killing became a powerful rallying cry for immigration reform and the sweeping new law set to take effect Thursday, barring any last-minute legal action.

But it does not tell the whole story about how Arizona got to this point.

Turn on the evening news in Arizona and some report reflecting the state’s battle with illegal immigration will likely flash across the screen.

A drop house crammed with illegal border-crossers smack in the middle of a suburban neighborhood. Traffic patrols and workplace raids that net the arrest of dozens of illegal immigrants, often in heavily Hispanic communities. Politicians speaking venomously about border violence and the leech of immigration costs on the state treasury.

Along the streets, Arizonans see day laborers near Wal-Mart and Home Depot parking lots, waiting for work. In some Phoenix-area neighborhoods, Spanish is so predominant both in spoken word and signage that residents complain they feel like they’re in a foreign country.

Then rancher Robert Krentz was gunned down in March while checking water lines on his property near the border. Authorities believe — but have never produced substantive proof — that an illegal immigrant, likely a scout for drug smugglers, was to blame.

Almost immediately Krentz came to symbolize what’s at stake with illegal immigration. Politicians quickly connected the dots, but everyday folks also spoke with anger and fear about the rancher’s death.

"You can’t ignore the damage and the costs to the taxpayers and the disrespect that comes with it and those who think they have a right to break our laws," says Russell Pearce, the fiery state senator who wrote Arizona’s new immigration law.

Pearce, in fact, is the godfather of anti-illegal immigration sentiment in Arizona and author of many of the tough laws.

He regularly depicts illegal immigration as an "invasion." He can tick off the names of police officers killed or wounded by criminals in the country illegally.

One of those names is that of his son, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Pearce, who survived a gunshot wound to the abdomen from an illegal immigrant in 2004 while serving a search warrant in a homicide case.

That might explain Pearce’s indefatigable effort against those entering the country illegally, but he says he held tough views before his son was shot. He insists that his frustration centers more broadly on the crime that immigrant smugglers bring into the country and the financial stress that illegal border-crossers put on communities.

Between 40 percent and 50 percent of all immigrant arrests each year on the U.S.-Mexico border are made in Arizona, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.

And the annual costs? About 0 million for educating illegal immigrants at K-12 schools, more than 0 million for jailing illegal immigrants convicted of state crimes and as much as million that hospitals have to eat for treating illegal border-crossers, according to figures provided by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, Gov. Jan Brewer’s office and the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association.

At Copper Queen Community Hospital, 4 miles north of the border in Bisbee, the emergency room sees one or two illegal immigrants every shift. Dr. Daniel Roe, the emergency-room medical director, says many come in with broken bones from jumping the 15-foot-tall border fence, others suffer from walking for days in the desert with little to no water, and others have been involved in car accidents.

"It’s very much part of our normal flow," he says. "But it demands resources. So it affects the operating budget."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/7124062.html

PHOENIX, AZ – Authorities say investigators with the Illegal Immigration Prevention and Apprehension Co-op Team recently captured eight human smugglers and rescued 23 human smuggling victims from Phoenix and Glendale drop houses.

IIMPACT investigators arrested Salvador Rodriquez, Edward Geraldo-Ramirez, Freddy Hernandez, Santiago Bermudez-Gomez, Luis Quezada, Julio Camargo-Vasquez for their alleged involvement in human smuggling schemes and drop houses in the past month, according to a Tuesday news release.

The arrests were made during two separate human smuggling incidents on November 20 and December 6.

On November 20, investigators responded to a tip from a relative of a human smuggling victim after she paid ,000 to human smugglers to “secure her relatives’ release.”

Authorities located the suspected drop house at 4151 West Earll Drive in Phoenix and numerous suspects reportedly tried to run from the residence.

Three suspects, later identified as Camargo-Vasquez, Quezada, and Bermudez-Gomez, were located and arrested while 15 victims were found inside the home, officials say.

Investigators also found a stolen police-issue handgun and two cell phones, presumably to call relatives for ransom money, according to authorities.

Officials reportedly later found that the victims were kept in a back room where reverse deadbolts were implemented on the door.

Camargo-Vasquez, Quezada, and Bermudez-Gomez are currently facing charges of human smuggling.

The second incident, on December 6, was also the result of a tip IIMPACT personnel received regarding a Mexican national being held against his will in a suspected drop house.

Authorities located the suspected drop house at 5130 North 68th Avenue in Glendale and used the aid of a SWAT team to investigate the property.

Investigators caught two suspects who attempted to flee the residence and another in the driveway of the home; all were later identified as Rodriquez, Geraldo-Ramirez, and Hernandez, according to authorities.

Eight undocumented immigrants were found inside the house as well as AK-47 rifles, four handguns, and cell phones used for ransom demands, officials say.

According to authorities, the victims told investigators that the suspects took their valuables and money, threatened them with firearms, and told them that they would kill the undocumented immigrants if they spoke with police.

Investigators later reportedly discovered that the rooms the undocumented immigrants were kept in were fortified with planks of wood over the windows to prevent any attempts to escape.

Salvador Rodriquez, Edward Geraldo-Ramirez, Freddy Hernandez are currently facing charges of kidnapping, extortion, armed robbery, human smuggling, and misconduct involving weapons.

http://www.abc15.com/content/news/phoenixmetro/central/story/DPS-8-suspected-human-smugglers-arrested-in-1/nNK_qWdFQ0GLwYv6QyCqSg.cspx

They keep telling us that the "violence has spilled over from Mexico", "Border cities are the most dangerous cities in America ", and that "Phoenix is the number one city for kidnappings because of illegal immigration" etc…

BUT! their claims do not add up with the Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI reports.
Where do they get their information from?
==========================

According to BJS, crime rates in border states have dropped during past decade

Crime rates in Arizona at lowest point in decades. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the violent crime rate in Arizona was lower in 2006, 2007, and 2008 — the most recent year from which data are available — than any year since 1983. The property crime rate in Arizona was lower in 2006, 2007, and 2008 than any year since 1968. In addition, in Arizona, the violent crime rate dropped from 577.9 per 100,000 population in 1998 to 447 per 100,000 population in 2008; the property crime rate dropped from 5,997 to 4,291 during the same period. During the same decade, Arizona’s undocumented immigrant population grew rapidly. The Arizona Republic reported: "Between January 2000 and January 2008, Arizona’s undocumented population grew 70 percent, according to the DHS [Department of Homeland Security] report. Nationally, it grew 37 percent."

Crime rates have dropped during past decade in other border states. The BJS data further show that violent crime rates and property crime rates in California, New Mexico, and Texas dropped from 1998 through 2008 — the most recent year from which data are available:

•In California, the violent crime rate dropped from 703.7 in 1998 to 503.8 in 2008; the property crime rate dropped from 3,639.1 to 2,940.3 during the same period.

•In New Mexico, the violent crime rate dropped from 961.4 in 1998 to 649.9 in 2008; the property crime rate dropped from 5,757.7 to 3,909.2 over the same period.

•In Texas, the violent crime rate dropped from 564.6 in 1998 to 507.9 in 2008; the property crime rate dropped from 4,547 to 3,985.6 over the same period.

http://mediamatters.org/research/201004290029

I am asking about mind your own business cause many advocates are now suggesting everybody should mind their own business when it comes to illegal immigration . Is this a mind your own business or an actual crime
Note Make sure your answer follows the community guidelines.Make sure your question follows the community guidelines.

PHOENIX (AP) – Authorities say they have arrested an illegal immigrant and shut down a fake ID manufacturing operation in Phoenix.

Arizona Department of Public Safety detectives operating with the Arizona Fraudulent Identification Task Force executed a search warrant this afternoon at a central Phoenix home.

They say a man inside of the residence was in the process of delivering a fraudulent Arizona drivers license that he had just manufactured.

Detectives say they seized high dollar computers/printers along with card stock, lists of names to be used for fraudulent documents, ,200 and a CD that was an instruction template for making ID cards in other states.

Authorities say 28-year-old Jacinto Huepalcalco-Meneses was arrested on charges of manufacturing fraudulent documents, identification theft and operating an illegal enterprise.

PHOENIX – Law enforcement officers say the extreme heat in the desert forces many people looking to enter the country illegally to put their lives in the hands of human smugglers.

Captain Fred Zumbo works with IIMPACT, or Illegal Immigration Prevention Apprehension Co-op Team. It’s made up of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. He said human smugglers often demand more money and hold people hostage in drop houses during the summer.

He says his agency works to detect drop houses early and shut down human traffickers before they turn violent.

"They don’t really care about delivering people to a destination. They just care about getting the money, and they are going to dump them in the streets somewhere."

Zumbo said officers see as many as 300 drop houses in Arizona every year.

http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/drop-house-violence-expected-to-rise

On East Thomas Road in Phoenix, the national shouting match over immigration unfolds week by week in a neighborhood that has changed in the same ways Arizona has.

Sheriff’s deputies patrol the parking lot at M.D. Pruitt’s Home Furnishings each Saturday, ensuring that no day laborers trespass on the property. Day-labor advocates mount protests nearby, blaring Mexican folk music while children dressed in traditional garb dance on the sidewalk.

Pruitt’s opened 57 years ago, but only recently did day laborers gather in large numbers to seek work on the sidewalks and parking lots of nearby businesses. The subdivisions that stretch back from Thomas Road have seen more and more Hispanic families arrive, changing the character of the neighborhood.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/1209pruitts1209.html

Reza takes pains to say he does not support illegal immigration. But he also notes with evident pride that of the 44 people Arpaio’s deputies had deported from near Pruitt’s as of last week, about half have already returned across the border illegally, some with friends.
Some dude how did it go from the sidewalk to the street…They can block sidewalks now isn’t that illegal?

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09242008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/illegal_aliens__the_mortgage_mess_130482.htm

There’s one villain that has slipped notice: how illegal immigration, crime-enabling banks and open-borders Bush policies fueled the mortgage crisis. It’s no coincidence that the areas hardest hit by the foreclosure wave – Loudoun County, Va., California’s Inland Empire, Stockton and San Joaquin Valley, and Las Vegas and Phoenix – also happen to be some of the nation’s largest illegal alien sanctuaries. Half of the mortgages to Hispanics are subprime. A quarter of all those subprime loans are in default and foreclosure.
Regional reports across the country have decried the subprime meltdown’s impact on illegal-immigrant "victims." A July report showed that in seven of the 10 metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates, Hispanics were at least one-third of the population; in two of those areas – Merced and Salinas-Monterey, Calif. – Hispanics comprised half the population. The National Council of La Raza and its Development Fund have received millions in federal funds to "counsel" their constituents on obtaining mortgages with little to no money down; the group almost succeeded in attaching a million earmark for itself in one of the housing bills passed this spring.
The Washington Post noted in 2005: "Hispanics, the nation’s fastest-growing major ethnic or racial group, have been courted aggressively by real-estate agents, mortgage brokers and programs for first-time buyers that offer help with closing costs. Ads proclaim: "Sin verificacion de ingresos! Sin verificacion de documento!" – which loosely translates as, ‘Income tax forms are not required, nor are immigration papers.’ "
Fraudsters also have engaged in house-flipping rings using illegal aliens as straw buyers. Among many examples the FBI cites: a conspiracy in Las Vegas involving a former Nevada First Residential Mortgage Company branch manager who directed loan officers and processors in the origination of 233 fraudulent Federal Housing Authority loans valued at over million. The defrauders made and submitted false employment and income documentation for borrowers; most were illegal immigrants from Mexico. To date, the FBI reported, "Fifty-eight loans with a total value of .2 million have gone into default, with a loss to the Housing and Urban Development Department of over .9 million."
Thanks to lax Bush administration policies allowing illegal aliens to use "matricula consular cards" and taxpayer-identification numbers to open bank accounts, mortgage fraud has grown. Money-lenders still have no access to a verification system to check Social Security numbers before approving loans.
In an interview about rampant illegal-alien home-loan fraud, a spokeswoman for the US General Accounting Office told me five years ago: "Considering the size of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston and other large cities throughout the United States known to be inundated with illegal aliens, I don’t think the federal government is willing to expose this problem for financial reasons as well as for fear of political repercussions."

http://www.americandaily.com/article/23278

While offering credit cards to people who are here illegally and lack Social Security numbers, Bank of America has been offering checking accounts and even mortgages to illegal aliens for years. Lending giants Wells Fargo and Citibank are among those who have also extended home loans to illegal aliens.
In 2005, President of Immigration Matters Marti Dinerstein, angry over this practice, told CNN: “It’s institutionalizing illegality. Now there’s no distinction being made between the people that follow all the rules and those who break our laws by entering the country or overstaying their visas.”
An American cannot obtain a mortgage loan for a home unless he or she has government issued identification, established credit, and verifiable income. However, for several years, the banks have been giving mortgages to illegal aliens who lack all of these things.

Now they have a bailout so will illegal aliens ultimately benefit? Off our tax dollars?

Is this becoming the norm DPS: 2 arrested after tip leads to Phoenix drop house bust. Isn’t Phoenix drop house city ?PHOENIX – Arizona Department of Public Safety officials arrested two suspected coyotes and rescued six victims who were being held in a drop house in Maryvale on Monday.

Detectives from IIMPACT (Illegal Immigration Prevention & Apprehension Co-op Team) investigated a complaint from a woman in Florida who said her son was being held captive in a Phoenix home after he recently had entered the U.S. from Mexico.

The woman apparently told detectives her son’s captors were demanding about ,200 for his release and that if she did not comply, he would be beaten and/or killed.

IIMPACT detectives spotted two suspects leaving the drop house described by the woman, according to the report.

The two suspected human smugglers, Alehandro Carmona-Clanca, 37, and Javier Torres-Jimenez, 24, both from Mexico, were arrested during a traffic stop in connection with the drop house.

Six people were reportedly found inside the home a search warrant was served.

A mother, her 12-year-old daughter, and four males including a 15-year-old, all believed to be undocumented immigrants were discovered.

The victims, who all claim to be Mexican Nationals, are believed to have been in the house since Friday and Saturday, according to DPS.

No medical attention was needed for the victims who appeared in fair condition.

DPS said the coyotes used bars on exterior windows of the house as reinforcement.

The drop house appears to have been operating for some time without power service.

Both Carmona-Clanca and Torres-Jimenez now face charges of extortion and human smuggling.

http://www.abc15.com/content/news/phoenixmetro/central/story/DPS-2-arrested-after-tip-leads-to-Phoenix-drop/shg_uRm75UyD3062wdYf8A.cspx

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