PHOENIX, April 24 (UPI) -- Tighter security on the U.S.-Mexican border is leading to an increase in violent crime, especially in Arizona, a report said.
Roaming bandits killed at least eight in attacks on smugglers in Arizona during the first three months of 2007, the Christian Science Monitor reported Tuesday. Additionally, U.S. Border Patrol agents were attacked by people attempting to cross the border illegally 112 times in that time period -- an 18 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.
"It is an unintended consequence of the hardening of the border," says Alonzo Pena, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for Arizona. "Because of stronger border patrol, it's harder for the smugglers to get their commodity -- whether drugs or aliens -- across. It's costing (the smugglers) more, so the value for that commodity goes up, as does the level of protection, usually through violence."
Law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction in border areas say nearly every category of crime has risen in recent months.
"It is a lucrative underground business sector that no doubt is generating millions of dollars in profits, and some see this as worth fighting for, and even killing for," says Nestor Rodriguez, an immigration expert at the University of Houston.
