WASHINGTON - If the 24 counties along the nation's Southwest border were a 51st state, it would rank first in federal crimes, second in tuberculosis and near the bottom in education, per capita income and access to health care.

Members of the U.S./Mexico Border Counties Coalition released a report including those estimates Wednesday as senators began to grapple with proposals for overhauling the nation's immigration system.

The 246-page study by researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso examines the social, public health, criminal and environmental challenges facing the immigration-stressed region, which includes the sprawling urban communities of San Diego and El Paso and the desert and ranch country of Arizona and New Mexico.

Local officials say they hope the results show lawmakers they need help with alleviating grinding poverty, disease and crime.

Until illegal immigration became an issue of hot national debate, Congress treated the Southwest border with "benign neglect," said Patrick Call, chairman of the Cochise County, Ariz., Board of Supervisors.

Isn't "benign neglect" an oxymoron?

So wow, it seems like there's some sort of..."problem" with immigration and the borders in the US. I dunno, have you guys heard anything about this?

The shock value of this report ranks right up there with France's bombshell discovery that Iran is using their nuclear development for...weapons!!!

Thanks, party politics.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060309/ap_on_go_ot/border_counties

hmmm...I dunno why the article quote looks like that (mandrakexico? haha...and the bolded part). I didn't do that, and when I tried to edit it it looks fine.