Spill-over violence from Mexico puts border residents in jeopardy (Final Draft)

The body of a man was found off Military Road in Mission, Texas on Sunday March 11. There is little known as to the cause of his death, but he had with him a license from Tamaulipas, Mexico indicating his status as an illegal immigrant.

What can be said for certain is that spill-over violence from Mexico has become increasingly dangerous for the border cities of the Rio Grande Valley.

U.S. Customs Agent Iracema Padilla explains that border patrol cannot catch all of the violence as it comes in. As the drugs and violence trickle in to the U.S. local task forces are assigned to deal with it.

“They’re already here,” said Padilla in reference to the spill-over violence. “They’ve been here for a long time we’ve only just started hearing more about it recently.”

The Falfurrias checkpoint that monitors border activity has apprehended 73397 pounds of drugs and 4120 illegal immigrants since the beginning of this year. According to a press release on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website, CBP officers seized over $1.9 million of cocaine at the Hidalgo port on March 1 and another $547,000 on March 15 at the Brownsville port.

Photos courtesy of cbp.gov

The list of drug apprehensions goes on in a similar fashion, and as the drug and violence issue worsens educators at Rio Grande Valley schools are becoming concerned for their students’ well being and safety.

Juan Garza, Alamo Middle School principal, notes that enrollment at public schools in the Rio Grande Valley has hit an all-time high as the violence in Mexico pushes residents across the border. But not only has the number of students changed, their values have changed as well.

“They want to try and associate themselves with that lifestyle,” said Garza. “As much as I hate to admit it, many of them probably do have relatives that are involved in gangs or the cartel.”

Garza explained that students as young as 11 and 12 are glamorizing drugs as he told the story of a 6^th grade student who brought a bag of sugar to school trying to pass it off as cocaine.

For Joann Cuevas, junior at Pharr-San Juan-Alamo High School, the pretend bags of cocaine are all too real. According to Cuevas a vast portion of the students at her school are involved in drugs and violence.

“I knew a girl with an uncle in the drug cartel,” said Cuevas. “Some other guy at our school, Hector Mendoza, was involved in a drug related murder about a month ago too.”

Cuevas does not feel safe at her school especially as the cartel violence worsens daily.

Although local task forces have busied themselves with dealing with the issue of spill-over drugs and violence from Mexico, the problem still persists and is becoming more and more dangerous.