Tomorrow, President Obama will be traveling to El Paso, Texas to reignite the debate over immigration reform. El Paso, ranked the safest city in America, is one of our larger border cities. For years the GOP has tried to paint these border cities as a hot bed for crime, and today it continues with John Boehner laying out the same claim. Well it seems today that Congressman Silvestre Reyes has had enough of the lies. Reyes, who represents El Paso, released the following statement:
“Speaker Boehner should focus on controlling the level of violence in his own state before tarnishing the image of border communities that remain among the safest places to live in America. As his office asserts that Congress cannot consider reforming our broken immigration system until border violence is under control, the fact remains that the six largest cities in Ohio all have higher rates of violence and crime than every major city along the U.S.-Mexico border. In fact, the Speaker’s own district in Dayton, Ohio saw more homicides in 2009 and 2010 than Texas’ four largest border cities combined, despite the fact that Dayton’s population of 141,500 is only about one-tenth of the size by comparison. According to the most recent City Crime Rankings Survey by CQ Press, Ohio’s cities have higher rates of violence and crime in every category, including murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and motor vehicle theft than border communities.
“Tomorrow, President Obama will visit the border region when he speaks in El Paso, the largest border city in Texas and the safest large city in America. As Republicans continue to distort the facts and use border violence as an excuse to delay immigration reform and disparage the outstanding work of our local, state, and federal law enforcement professionals, I hope the President’s visit will help expose Republicans’ distorted rhetoric on border violence, and renew the push for much-needed reforms to our immigration system that are long overdue.”
Reyes even backs up his statement with actual facts and figures, something Boehner fails to do.
Living right between Cincinnati and Dayton, I can tell you that crime is extremely high in the two cities. As matter of fact, here’s a story of a man killed last night in Dayton. Or how about a 27 year old mother who was murdered in Dayton on Friday? Still not convinced? How about a rape that occurred only a few miles from Boehner’s house last week? Maybe even a bank that was just robbed today, again, only a few miles from Boehner’s house.
As a constituent of John Boehner’s, I would really like to see him take in interest in the crime epidemic that is happening in his own backyard, instead of manufacturing a faux epidemic in cities that are much safer than right here. Not only is this a distraction from actual issues, but Boehner’s words are an insult to the local, state and federal officials of theses border towns, who have made that area one of the safest in the country. Get your facts straight John and worry about your own damn district for once!