Safe border cities: placid in El Paso.

• Author: Moynihan, Michael C.
• Position: Citings

OF THE MYTHS surrounding American immigration policy, perhaps the most pernicious is the mistaken idea, promulgated by politicians of both major parties, that illegal immigrants from Mexico bring an inevitable increase in violent crime.

In 2009 Michael Sullivan, former director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, lamented the "escalation of violence" on "both sides of the border." But according to a June review of crime data by the Associated Press, the four American cities with the lowest crime rates are El Paso, Austin, San Diego, and Phoenix--all in border states. El Paso sits directly across from Juarez, Mexico, one of the most violent cities in the hemisphere. And while anti-immigration...