Border Violence Hits Close to Home

From the Las Cruces Sun-News - LAS CRUCES - Daily reports of drug cartel-related killings in Juárez may numb sensitivity to the severity of the situation just across New Mexico's southern border. There is, after all, an international boundary - lined with miles of fence and patrolled by scores of federal agents - that separates Mexico from the United States. Periodically, however, incidents like one over the weekend in El Paso call to mind that the raging cartel war is just a stone's throw - or a bullet's shot - away. A stray bullet from a gunfight in Juárez was suspected of striking a building on the University of Texas at El Paso campus Saturday. Another bullet may have hit a vehicle in El Paso. The incident prompted the closure of an El Paso street, a portion of West Paisano Drive, for about 30 minutes. Guillermo Marquez of Dona Ana, a legal resident who immigrated from a small Chihuahua town in 1984, believes there's reason to be concerned the violence could creep northward. The situation in his home country is "awful" now, he said. "I see everything in the news daily," he said. "It's coming, little by little." Marquez said he hasn't returned to Mexico for a visit in about three years because of the violence. "I'd like to go, but I can't," he said. Read more here:

Border Violence Hits Close to Home