After months of prodding from anti-immigration politicians, the entire US-Mexico border is now being watched by the Predator B unmanned surveillance aircraft commonly known as Predator drones. The news may comfort residents of border states where the details of Mexico’s brutal drug war continue to make headlines, but here’s some more comforting news: violent crime in US border states has decreased during the past decade, and some big border cities are the safest in the nation.

Here’s some uncomfortable news: several of the politicians who pushed to bring more Predator drones to the border have received campaign contributions from military contractors that make drone aircraft and parts.

But, on the bright side, the downward trend of violent crime in border states coupled with the $600 million President Barack Obama recently approved in spending on security technology like Predator drones and the deployment of 1,200 additional National Guard troops to the border indicates that the region is secure, really, really secure.

Even Homeland Security Secretary Jane Napolitano said the border is safer than ever as she briefed the press on the new Predator drones and the arrival of National Guard troops, according to The New York Times.

‘Numbers don’t lie,’ Napolitano added.

Violent crime rates in […]