Violence among our southern border has been on the rise since the Mexican President started war against the drug cartels.

Gruesome murders and acts of violence south of border are spilling over.
-Americans have been kidnapped and had other acts of violence committed against them
-Americans have died due to this

From MSNBC article:

While U.S. officials have long been concerned about the mindless violence bred by Mexico’s bloody and brutal drug wars, they have a new reason to worry: Americans are increasingly getting caught in the deadly crossfire.

"You have a lot of folks who are dual citizens, with some born in the U.S. but (who) live on the Mexico side," Scott Stewart, a vice president with the global intelligence firm STRATFOR, said of the difficulty in documenting American deaths connected to cartel violence. "A lot of them are working back and forth and some are working as gunmen too. And when someone like that dies, it is hard to know. Some simply disappear while others are lying in a vat of lye or dumped into a mass grave."

STRATFOR also says the presence of cartels has been documented in more than 230 U.S. cities.

Gonzalez, the Texas sheriff, whose department sits on the other side of the Rio Grande from Mexico, said his officers have long seen evidence that the violence doesn’t respect borders.“The feds say our side of the border is safe,” he said, “but we have bullet holes in our schools and businesses that say otherwise.”