contended . The two largest Latino populations in the United States are in the New York City and Los Angeles areas , she said , but both locales have seen a `` dramatic drop in the crime rate . '' Government and police statistics show that the crime rate has been decreasing in New York for the past 15 years . Similarly , statistics show that rate for most major crimes in Los Angeles also has fallen in recent years . `` This clearly shows that linking immigration directly with violence is not connected , '' Espinosa said . Others make the case , however , that illegal immigration and high crime are strongly linked . Supporters of SB 107 , the controversial Arizona immigration law , parts of which were struck down in federal court in July , used that argument to pass the bill this year . `` Border violence and crime due to illegal immigration are critically important issues to the people of our state , '' Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said earlier this year . `` There is no higher priority than protecting the citizens of Arizona . We can not sacrifice our safety to the
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Violence in the United States is not related to illegal Mexican immigrants , but violence in Mexico is connected to vast shipments of weapons from the United States , Mexico 's foreign minister told CNN Thursday . Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa pointed to efforts by Mexico to stop the flow of weapons , the great majority of which come from the United States . `` Since 2006 , '' she said in a wide-ranging interview with CNN 's editorial board in New York City , `` the Mexican government has seized over 85,000 weapons in Mexico . '' She noted that it 's not just `` regular weapons , '' but also machine guns , grenades and other high-power arms . Robert Pastor , a Latin America national security adviser for President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s , pointed out last year there were at least 6,600 U.S. gun shops within 100 miles of the Mexican border and more than 90 percent of weapons in Mexico come from the United States . In contrast , Espinosa said , there 's no evidence linking high crime rates with illegal immigration , as some U.S. politicians have