Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump created a firestorm of controversy with his comments about Mexican illegal immigrants, asserting that they are "bringing drugs" and "crime" and include "rapists."To date, his Miss Universe pageant has been cut from Univision and NBC, he's been severed permanently from his top-rated "Apprentice" show on NBC, and dropped from endorsement deals with Macy's, the Professional Golfers' Association, NASCAR, and even Serta mattresses.He has also drawn criticism across the political spectrum, including from some of his GOP presidential rivals.

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But there are compelling reasons why the outspoken billionaire businessman is on the right track with his views on illegal immigration:The United Nations reported that 97 percent of the illegal immigrants who enter the U.S. clandestinely do so across the nearly 2,000-mile Mexican border, but only 20 percent of those who cross illegally are caught.: Of the 61,529 criminal cases initiated by federal prosecutors in 2013, more than 40 percent were filed in court districts neighboring the border. Nearly 22 percent were drug-related, 19.7 percent were violent crimes, and 10.2 percent involved white-collar offenses.According to the Center for Immigration Studies, 57 percent of the 76 fugitive murderers wanted by the FBI in 2009 were foreign-born. The Center also disclosed that in Maricopa County in Arizona, 22 percent of felons are illegal immigrants.About 4.5 million illegal aliens in the U.S. drive on a regular basis, many without licenses or insurance or even the ability to read road signs written in English, The New York Times reported. In Arizona, 63 percent of cited drivers have no license, no insurance, and no registration for the vehicle, and 97 percent of them are illegal aliens. Of the 188,380 deportations of illegal aliens in one recent year, 23 percent had committed criminal traffic offenses, primarily driving under the influence. Rep. Steve King of Iowa has estimated that illegal alien drunk drivers kill 13 Americans every day.In Pinal County, Ariz., about 70 miles from the Mexican border, Sheriff Paul Babeu said marijuana seizures went from about 19,000 pounds in 2008 to more than 45,500 pounds in 2010. Babeu observed: "The Mexican drug cartels have almost toppled the Mexican government and they are crossing into Arizona at will. Pinal County has seen mass murders, execution-style slayings, sexual assaults, kidnappings, shootings, armed robberies, burglaries, and more — all tied to illegal immigration."In 2010, the Border Patrol reported that 212,000 illegals were caught in the Tucson, Ariz., sector alone, and as many as 30 percent of them already had a criminal record in the U.S.

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A Government Accountability Office study of 55,000 illegal aliens found that they were arrested at least 459,614 times, averaging about eight arrests per alien. About one-quarter of them had 11 or more arrests.Due to the wide-open Mexican border, the number of people prosecuted for coming into the country illegally after being deported has increased by 175 percent since 2005, according to a report cited by the Constitution Party website. The illegal alien recently accused of randomly murdering a woman in San Francisco had previously been deported five times.Arrests by the Border Patrol of illegals from countries other than Mexico, particularly from Central America, increased from 59,000 in 2010 to 99,000 in 2012.One quarter of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals, as are 40 percent of inmates in Arizona and 48 percent in New Mexico. And 75 percent of those on the most wanted criminals list in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Albuquerque are illegal aliens.Among many examples, an undocumented alien was arrested in Baltimore for raping a 9-year-old girl. In Austin, Texas, police arrested two Mexican nationals who allegedly participated in the gang rape of a 13-year girl in June. As many as 13 men took part, and some filmed the crime on their cell phones. Earlier this year an illegal alien from Mexico admitted in court that he raped a 12-year-old girl.Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told MSNBC that while most people who cross the border come for economic reasons, "hidden with them, because they're coming across unchecked, are people who rape, murder people, kill people and are terrorists."Retired neurosurgeon and GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson said he agrees with Trump that sanctuary cities, who prohibit the use of municipal funds to enforce federal immigration laws, should be outlawed. "No sanctuary cites," he said. "I think that's ridiculous."Michael Cutler, who spent 30 years with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said Trump is "really igniting a firestorm that's a long time coming."And GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, who represents a border state, said: "I salute Donald Trump for focusing on the need to address illegal immigration. The Washington cartel doesn't want to address that. The Washington cartel doesn't believe we need to secure the borders."According to Rasmussen Reports, 63 percent of Americans want the U.S. to gain control of the border. A recent CNN national survey found that of the announced Republican candidates, Trump placed second only to Jeb Bush. And Bill Kristol, founder and editor of The Weekly Standard, said Trump "is an outsider who was saying some things that the establishment doesn't want to hear, that is resonating with voters."

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The mother of a teenager who was murdered by an illegal immigrant gang member, Army Sgt. Anita Shaw, praised Trump for "trying to do something about a failed immigration system."Reuben Navarette Jr. writes in The Daily Beast that Mexico's elite, despite displaying "outrage" at Trump's comments, often speak in the same manner at high-end golf courses and banquets.Trump made that point when he said that illegal immigration is "coming from more than Mexico. It's coming from all over Latin America, and it's coming probably from the Middle East. But we don't know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don't know what's happening. And it's got to stop."