BOSTON -- The Associated Press reported last week that the U.S.-Mexico border is one of the safest parts of America and that Border Patrol agents face less danger than your average city cop.

These are the hard facts of official statistics. Yet presented with the evidence, this is what Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry's spokeswoman said: "We respond to threats based on risk, not occurrence."

Huh? In other words, facts don't count in making policy in Texas. Just speculative assessments and fears.

But perhaps Perry is doing us a favor by explaining how it is that so many of our political leaders and pundits justify a steady drumbeat of false or misleading statements that have made Americans feel insecure and under siege by immigrant crime.

Here is Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina: "We have a national security emergency at our southern border and we must act immediately."

Republican Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas said American towns are being turned into the "Wild West" and that "a battle is building on the border, and U.S. citizens are getting caught in the crossfire."

Arizona Republican Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl wrote to President Obama that border violence "has escalated to a point where many Arizonans do not feel safe within their own homes or on their own property."

"The violence is, as you know, increasing," said Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, "and it's a serious threat to law-abiding people in Arizona and other places along our Southern border."

In primaries from Massachusetts to California, Republican and Democratic candidates ran on platforms of "invasions" across the border and immigrant crime.

These assessments are being used to oppose any kind of comprehensive immigration reform and demand instead that more National Guard troops be sent to the border. The fear is such that Americans, according to polls, support a harsh new Arizona law that subjects Hispanic and other Americans who somehow look foreign to be able to prove to local police that they belong here.

Leaders on the left hardly help. Because many haven't seen an immigration enforcement measure that they actually like, they also deny that current enforcement is working. Both sides, along with the mainstream media, repeat the litany of our "broken borders," even though that charge is years out of date.

There is indeed border violence -- but it is on the Mexican side. With the exception of kidnappings among gang members in Phoenix, violent crime in our border counties and border states has been steadily dropping since the 1990s and is among the lowest in the country, according to the FBI. In 2009, Phoenix, El Paso, Austin and San Diego were among the safest cities of more than 100,000 people.

Meanwhile, the number of unauthorized immigrants jumping the border is at its lowest level since 1970. Various studies show that those already here commit violent crime at far lower rates than American citizens.

Few of our elected political leaders, mostly Republican but also some Democrats, give that perspective. I can't say whether it is out of misinformation or manipulation.

But I can say that many of the powerful conservative shock jocks on radio and television take irresponsibility to another level. This, for example, is Michael Savage on air: "We need to get our troops out of Iraq and put them on the streets of America to protect us from the scourge of illegal immigrants who are running rampant across America, killing our police for sport, raping, murdering like a scythe across America while the liberal psychos are telling us they come here to work."

Yet as Customs and Border Protection spokesman Lloyd Easterling said, "The border is safer now than it's ever been."

The AP cited a study by the Department of Homeland Security showing that 3 percent of Border Patrol agents were assaulted last year, mostly by rock-throwers. While rocks can be dangerous, this compares with 11 percent of police officers and sheriff's deputies in the country assaulted in the same period, usually with guns and knives.

More can be done, but drugs and migrants are separate issues that require separate solutions. Neither requires panic.