USA TODAY: …Since 2011, the University of San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute has tracked a “notable and important” leveling in the grinding cycle of killing throughout Mexico. In a study of homicides provided to USA TODAY, institute researchers found that organized-crime-related murder dropped 21% in 2012 — the first time those numbers fell since the drug wars escalated in 2007. That trend was especially pronounced in Mexico’s six border states, which saw a 32% drop in organized-crime killings…
“Our border is not secure and the federal government has a long way to go,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in a statement directed at Napolitano as she embarked on a tour of the U.S. border this week.
But an accompanying concern along the vast U.S.-Mexico border is that checkpoints have become commerce-choking bottlenecks. As efforts to control illegal immigration have ramped up, business activity that could help people on both sides of the border has been stifled by grueling lines and hours-long waits… (more)
