In the sometimes tense relationship between the United States and Mexico, security is often a wild card.
That could spell trouble for many people living in the United States.
The recent kidnapping of a Dallas-area couple in the northeastern Mexico state of Tamaulipas illustrates the violent vulnerabilities along the border.
All Mexican border states are under some type of security advisory from the U.S. government. But the strongest alerts are for the states of Tamaulipas and Coahuila, where the State Department warns against all nonessential travel.
The Dallas-area family was taken in April as they traveled to a funeral in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi. Three hours from the Texas border, near the Tamaulipas capital of Ciudad Victoria, they became victims of a highway assault that led to 19 days in captivity.
News of a kidnapping is not a surprise to government officials on either side of the border.
“Over the last two years, Tamaulipas has deteriorated horribly,” said U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Texas, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.
Vela said the emphasis on low homicide rates in border cities such as El Paso, Laredo and Brownsville is misplaced. Instead, he said, the focus should be on the cartel war across the river in Tamaulipas, a state with a long history of smuggling.
A third of Texas' population of 26 million has Mexican ancestry, according to Census Bureau estimates. Many Texans of Mexican ancestry still travel to northern Mexico, Vela said. But he said his relatives no longer visit a family grave in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, because of safety concerns.
A year and half ago, two Brownsville brothers, both U.S. citizens and military veterans, disappeared in Tamaulipas. That brought calls by Vela and others for cross-border cooperation in the search for the men, who are still missing.
Even with the Mexican military now patrolling the state, stabilization hasn't come, said Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, an associate professor in public affairs and security studies at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley.
And FBI involvement with Mexican authorities can be complicated if the kidnap victims aren't U.S. citizens, said Arturo Fontes, a former FBI agent.
