Who still goes to Mexican border towns?

da1 · Feb 10, 2013

My brother and dad were bored so they went to Nuevo Laredo yesterday. To me that sounds like a crazy idea unless you need medicine or dental work you can't afford; at that point it makes sense. But I think they are crazy I know people who have lived on the border all their lives and don't cross anymore due to safety concerns. And this comes from someone who routinely travels into interior Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador. Any thoughts from fellow brave clutchfans?

crash5179 · Feb 10, 2013

I've been to boarder towns a lot years ago but I would not go today. There are way too many stories.

Commodore · Feb 10, 2013

El Paso is the safest large city in America

http://reason.com/archives/2009/07/06/the-el-paso-miracle/print

By conventional wisdom, El Paso, Texas should be one of the scariest cities in America. In 2007, the city's poverty rate was a shade over 27 percent, more than twice the national average. Median household income was $35,600, well below the national average of $48,000. El Paso is three-quarters Hispanic, and more than a quarter of its residents are foreign-born. Given that it's nearly impossible for low-skilled immigrants to work in the United States legitimately, it's safe to say that a significant percentage of El Paso's foreign-born population is living here illegally.

El Paso also has some of the laxer gun control policies of any non-Texan big city in the country, mostly due to gun-friendly state law. And famously, El Paso sits just over the Rio Grande from one of the most violent cities in the western hemisphere, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, home to a staggering 2,500 homicides in the last 18 months alone. A city of illegal immigrants with easy access to guns, just across the river from a metropolis ripped apart by brutal drug war violence. Should be a bloodbath, right?

Here's the surprise: There were just 18 murders in El Paso last year, in a city of 736,000 people. To compare, Baltimore, with 637,000 residents, had 234 killings. In fact, since the beginning of 2008, there were nearly as many El Pasoans murdered while visiting Juarez (20) than there were murdered in their home town (23).

El Paso is among the safest big cities in America. For the better part of the last decade, only Honolulu has had a lower violent crime rate (El Paso slipped to third last year, behind New York). Men's Health magazine recently ranked El Paso the second "happiest" city in America, right after Laredo, Texas—another border town, where the Hispanic population is approaching 95 percent.

So how has this city of poor immigrants become such an anomaly? Actually, it may not be an anomaly at all. Many criminologists say El Paso isn't safe despite its high proportion of immigrants, it's safe because of them.

"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."
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Dr of Dunk · Feb 10, 2013

Commodore said: ↑

El Paso is the safest large city in America
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But ............. it's still El Paso.

davidio840 · Feb 10, 2013

That article only discusses murder, what are the numbers on rape, domestic violence, burglary, car jackings and assault??

Sajan · Feb 10, 2013

davidio840 said: ↑

That article only discusses murder, what are the numbers on rape, domestic violence, burglary, car jackings and assault??
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As long as you don't die..it's cool.

da1 · Feb 10, 2013

Commodore said: ↑

El Paso is the safest large city in America

http://reason.com/archives/2009/07/06/the-el-paso-miracle/print
Click to expand...

I meant other side of the border

cheke64 · Feb 10, 2013

I go down airline every weekend.

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Who still goes to Mexican border towns?

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