Live in Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, or Youngstown? Kudos to you, brave soul, because statistics show those cities are more dangerous than towns on the U.S. Mexican border, locations fraught with — we're guessing here — gangs, smuggling, drugs, and tequila-induced streaks of violence.

That startling fact emerged after U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso took Ohio's own John Boehner to task after the Speaker said securing our border should be priority numero uno and an important step in stopping violence in America. Silvestre responded in a press release that Boehner "should focus on controlling the level of violence in his own state before tarnishing the image of border communities that remain among the safest places to live in America. ... The fact remains that the six largest cities in Ohio all have higher rates of violence and crime than every major city along the U.S.-Mexico border."

PolitiFact checked the numbers on Silvestre's seemingly outrageous claim.

Whoa. Do the Buckeye State’s largest cities have more violence and crime? Looks like it. As backup, Reyes cited research compiled by CQ Press, which said in a November 2010 press release that its latest compilation of city-by-city crime information reflects data for cities of at least 75,000 residents that reported crime data to the FBI for its Uniform Crime Reporting Program as of September 2010. In 2009, over all, Ohio’s six most populous cities—Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron and Dayton—had higher crime rates than six border cities: San Diego, El Paso, Laredo, Brownsville, McAllen and Yuma, Arizona. The best-rated Ohio city, Columbus, was 49th, the worst-rated border city, Laredo, was 144th, according to CQ Press. According to CQ Press’s report, the six Ohio cities had higher rates of murder, rape, robbery and burglary than the six border cities.

Ohio: All the danger of Mexico without the benefit of authentic Mexican food.