There is No National Emergency at the U.S.-Mexico Border
Texas Border Business
WASHINGTON — Today, Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX-28), a member of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee and Subcommittees of Homeland Security and Defense, released a statement on the latest 2017 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Report data, which shows that despite the narrative and rhetoric from the Administration, murder and violent crime rates in border cities are significantly less compared to major non-border American cities:
“Year after year, Republicans claim that the border is more dangerous than other areas, but this is simply not true. President Trump aligns himself with this notion by threatening to declare a national emergency as a means to direct resources to build a wall at the southern border. Unlike this false narrative, data shows that the U.S.-Mexico border is in fact home to some of the safest communities in the nation. Cities at the border have lower murder and violent crime rates than places like Washington, D.C., Chicago, IL, and Houston, TX. Bottom-line, the border crime rate is lower than the national crime rate.
“Portraying the southwest border as unsafe only serves to systematically hamper our region’s economic and community development. There is no national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border— the data is proof that the area is safe and open for business. Do we need more border security? Yes, but it has to be common-sense border security that does not include a 14th-century solution called the wall.”
Click here to view charts depicting the latest FBI data here: 2017 Murder and Violent Crime Rates.
