Immigration & the Border: Exaggerated alarms - Editorial

A voice of reason from Charleston, West Virginia's Gazette-Mail

Border: Exaggerated alarms - Editorials: "It's true that large numbers of Hispanic aliens -- desperate for low-paying menial jobs that U.S. residents won't take -- slip across the border from Mexico. Estimates calculate that perhaps 10 million are in the United States illegally. ...

Arizona's Republican Gov. Jan Brewer warned of human skulls in her state's deserts and upsurges of crime by aliens. Last year, she signed the nation's toughest immigration bill, giving police unprecedented authority to detain Hispanic suspects. Four other conservative states -- Alabama, Utah, Indiana and Georgia -- also passed laws to seize dark-skinned people who look suspicious.

But an in-depth study by USA Today indicates the hysteria over aliens is overblown. Researching reporters found that U.S. crimes are less likely within 50 miles of the Mexican border than farther north.

The national newspaper analyzed statistics for all types of crime from more 1,600 local and country police agencies in four states along the Mexican border. "Arizona, the center of a political firestorm over immigration reform, has lower rates of crime along its border with Mexico than in the rest of the state," the report said. ...

We hope this study helps cool the hostility that so many feel toward Hispanics. ...

The United States needs better control of its borders -- but the task should be done sensibly, without distorted fears of penniless people who risk their lives in search of work."