Violent crime in border cities fell below national rate in 2024
Why it matters: The findings from last year run counter to claims by President Trump and GOP leaders, who painted border towns as crime hotspots because of newly arrived immigrants.
The big picture: Eleven border cities examined annually by Axios — Brownsville, McAllen, Laredo, Eagle Pass, Del Rio and El Paso in Texas; Sunland Park in New Mexico; Nogales and Yuma in Arizona; and Calexico and San Diego in California — had an average violent crime rate of 356.5 per 100,000 residents.
That was a sizable drop from 2023 and was slightly below the national average of 359.1 violent crimes per 100,000 residents last year, FBI numbers show.
Between the lines: The 11 border communities, all of them majority-Latino, had a homicide rate of 2.5 per 100,000 residents — half of the national average of 5 per 100,000.
Four of the border cities — Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Sunland Park and Nogales — reported no homicides in 2024, the data show.
El Paso and Yuma had the highest homicide rate among the border communities with 2.9 per 100,000, still well below the national average.
The intrigue: McAllen — located across the Rio Grande from Reynosa, Mexico, one of the most dangerous places in the Americas — had one of the lowest violent crime rates on the border.
Zoom out: The border communities had low crime rates before Trump took office, boosted border security and canceled millions of dollars in federal money for crime prevention programs.
Early numbers for 2025 indicate that overall violent crime in the border cities is continuing to drop, as Trump's lockdown of the border has greatly reduced illegal crossings.
Yes, but: Local officials fear that could change if the administration pulls back on anti-crime grants amid fights over immigration enforcement.
The Trump administration is threatening to withhold millions of dollars in law enforcement grants unless cities agree to work with federal immigration officials on mass deportations.
El Paso has been an exception this year, experiencing a 42% jump in homicides in the first half of 2025, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA).
The intrigue: Some border cities, such as Laredo and Sunland Park, are dispatching AI-enhanced drones to help fight crime amid officer shortages.
Flashback: Throughout the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeated false claims that migrants from Latin America, Africa and the Middle East were responsible for jumps in violent crime, despite studies showing violent crime was dropping.
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