Radley Balko at Reason
thinks he has an answer for why El Paso ranks among the safest large cities in America:
"If you want to find a safe city, first determine the size of the immigrant population," says Jack Levin, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Massachusetts. "If the immigrant community represents a large proportion of the population, you're likely in one of the country's safer cities. San Diego, Laredo, El Paso—these cities are teeming with immigrants, and they're some of the safest places in the country." ...
What's happening with Latinos is true of most immigrant groups throughout U.S. history. "Overall, immigrants have a stake in this country, and they recognize it," Northeastern University's Levin says. "They're really an exceptional sort of American. They come here having left their family and friends back home. They come at some cost to themselves in terms of security and social relationships. They are extremely success-oriented, and adjust very well to the competitive circumstances in the United States." Economists Kristin Butcher and Anne Morrison Piehl argue that the very process of migration tends to select for people with a low potential for criminality.
Indeed, Balko argues that:
An immigrant group's propensity for criminality may be partly determined by how they're received in their new country.
"Look at Arab-Americans in the Midwest, especially in the Detroit area," Levin says. "The U.S. and Canada have traditionally been very willing to welcome and integrate them. They're a success story, with high average incomes and very little crime. That's not the case in Europe. Countries like France and Germany are openly hostile to Arabs. They marginalize them. And they've seen waves of crime and rioting."
El Paso may be a concentrated affirmation of that theory. In 2007 the Washington Post reported on city leaders' wariness of anti-immigration policies coming out of Washington. The city went to court (and lost) in an effort to prevent construction of the border fence within its boundaries, and local officials have resisted federal efforts to enlist local police for immigration enforcement, arguing that it would make illegals less likely to cooperate with police. "Most people in Washington really don't understand life on the border," El Paso Mayor John Cook told the Post. "They don't understand our philosophy here that the border joins us together, it doesn't separate us."
Other mayors could learn something from Cook. El Paso's embrace of its immigrants might be a big reason why the low-income border town has remained one of the safest places in the country.
What do you think? Does its receptive attitude toward immigrants explain El Paso's impressive recent record on crime, or is it something else? If so, what? I've often wondered that myself and this is as plausible an explanation as any I've heard.
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20 comments:
Laredo, safe?!
I couple years ago I was staying at the LaQuinta off I-35, exit 2, I believe. One afternoon, I heard several shots nearby. I called reception and asked if they heard gunfire. They dismissed the whole thing: "drug dealers killing each other, nothing to worry about".
Laredo and El Paso are literally miles, and miles apart. Hell, they aren't even in the same state, on the Mexico side.
I think the data are flawed to begin with, and it is known that immigrant communities under report crime.
More typical Grits propaganda. He never tires of it. Seems obsessed with promoting illegal immigration.
Could be just El Paso Police crime stats being cooked.
@Anon 12:52: Wow! If you believe presentation of a theory, followed by the question, "What do you think?" is "propaganda" that obsessively proselytizes "illegal immigration," your mind must be incredibly weak!
(Also seems to be a case of reading what you want to be there -- I was unaware that the word "immigrant" meant "illegal immigrant")
This is a very interesting article, there are a lot of confusing statistics out there on illegal immigrants.
History does show that immigrates who came here by their own free will do very well, while those who did not create a drain on society for generations. If you look at US prisons, US slums, US welfare rolls, they are inhabited by the generations of involuntary immigrants. People who have been marginalized by American society while being endowed with an enormous since of entitlement that America will pay for indefinitely.
I can't speak for anyone else, but when I stayed in El Paso for a commercial real estate deal, I saw no evidence of safety through immigration. Gang tags were EVERYwhere, as were gangsters. There is a constant underlying tension amongst the folks I interacted with, which increased in magnitude in direct proximity to the border. Barrio Aztecca owns that town, and likely many of the police officials who "protect" it. Granted, an average citizen should rarely, if ever, come into contact with those folks, but the potential for hellish violence always looms just under the surface of everyday life there. Recently (according to the history channel) kidnappings and murders have begun to stray over the border onto U.S. soil, in ever-increasing numbers. So basically, I call "bullshit".
So, Anny 12:18, you are trying to subtly refer to black people (the immigrates (sic) who did not come here voluntarily), I assume? Stay classy. I can see why you post anonymously. Do you have an equally classy solution to this problem, or are you just dropping by to sprinkle some racism into the comments? By the way, nice grammar and spelling; perhaps that's also the fault of these involuntary immigrants ("they've destroyed our schools and made me dumb!")?
Your grandparents and great grandparents are very likely legal immigrants.
They made this country great. It is quite difficult to marginalize over 50% of the population over time!
As for crime, stop criminalizing everyday activities, then you would see crime rates go down. Claiming crime is under reported is a pretty lame argument!
what a bunch of bull. Take a walk around Town Lake Circle in Austin near East Riverside and tell me if you feel safe.
Travel to beautiful Southwest Houston and ask the fine residents of the Gulfton Ghetto if they subscribe to this theory.
9:43, maybe what this debate needs is fewer theories and anecdotes and greater reliance on evidence.
Todd, Town Lake Circle? Really?
I've got a friend who lives on that street can tell you a) he seems to do just fine and b) I feel safe when I visit. I'm amazed THAT'S your example. I can't speak to the neighborhood in Houston.
To R. Shackelford, it's not actually the case that cartel killings have strayed across the border in significant numbers, whatever the History Channel told you (don't believe their specials on Masonic conspiracies, either), and EP's murder rate is surprisingly low given what's going on across the river in Juarez. FWIW, what he's saying about El Paso crime jibes exactly with the annual Uniform Crime Reports as far as their ranking vis a vis other cities..
Grits,
You must go visit with your eyes closed. There are always prostitutes roaming around and drug dealers at the bus stops. There is a robbery or an assault there almost every night.
Sad but true.
Lynn, I’m black and my name is Sam, like Samson from the bible. I was fortunate enough to go to a private all white school on a football scholarship. I owe my education to the genetic engineering of breeding a better field hand on the plantation back in the day. I’m proud of my black heritage but angry at how our people have let whitey take advantage of us. From 40 acres and a mule to an internal fascist party inside the historically racist democratic party running a puppet candidate whose only qualification was he is black. I personally don’t think uncle Husain is really black. It was told to me that my great grand pappy didn’t make his mark for the 40 acres and a mule and I didn’t make mine to trash our economy and trample our constitution. So yea call me a racist for being angry that my black brothers and sisters are so stupid to continue to let whitey take advantage of us and allow ourselves to be marginalized. But our people are so stupid and cry racist even when a person exercised the constitutional right and voted for the white man. I’m becoming convinced by the evidence that when one of our people cry racist what they are really saying is I’m to ignorant to discuss a topic with facts.
02:49:00
I wouldn't call you a racist, but your post is indicative of a person who loves to blame other people for his own failings.
Todd writes, "You must go visit with your eyes closed. There are always prostitutes roaming around and drug dealers at the bus stops."
I've lived in central East Austin for 20 years, it takes more than drug dealers and hookers at the bus stop to make me feel unsafe or else I'd have moved to the suburbs long ago. I may prefer they weren't there, but I'm not afraid of them.
Immigrants are great, it is the illegal immigrants that have filled up Texas prisons....
Not even remotely true, 7:47, that's an ignorant, clueless statement. See Texas-specific data on the topic.
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