Mexican Mayors Blame Increased Border Violence on… the U.S.?

A coalition of mayors from four northern Mexican cities are asking U.S. authorities to stem the deportation of illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes on the American side of the border.
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders joined the mayors of Tijunana, Ciudad Juarez, Nogales and Nuevo Laredo last week to discuss cross-border issues.  Among them, the Mexcian mayors complained that America’s deportation of convicted criminal illegal immigrants back to the Mexican border is contributing to the recent rise in violent crimes, including kidnapping and other crimes related to the drug trade.
According to Jose Reyes Ferriz, mayor of Ciudad Juarez, of the 80,000 people deported to his town over the past three years, 28,000 had U.S. criminal records, including 7,000 who had served prison time for rape and 2,000 convicted of murder.  Reyes claims that the large number of criminal deportees have contributed to the violence in his town — a town that has reported more than 2,200 homicides so far this year.

Instead of busing these criminals to the border, the Mexican mayors are encouraging U.S. authorities to fly the deportees by plane to central Mexico.  But, according to Fox News, critics on the American side of the border say the Mexican lawmakers are simply trying to “pass the buck” to the U.S., and that the Mexicans should take responsibility for their criminals, who are putting both Mexican and American lives in danger.