Border Patrol Agent Urges Calm as Fears in Texas Town Rise

As Mexican drug cartels continue to frighten residents along both sides of the Rio Grande River, one Border Patrol Agent says a tiny Texas town can sleep easy. Border Patrol Agent Joe Romero was among several local law enforcement officials at a town hall meeting on Wednesday in Fort Hancock, a town of 1,700 roughly 50 miles southeast Ciudad Juarez, the epicenter of Mexico’s violent drug war. Romero said the meeting was held following the request of Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West to quell rising fears stemming from the possibility that violence in Mexico, particularly from El Sorvenir just across the Rio Grande, could enter the United States at any moment. “The residents are concerned,” Romero told FoxNews.com. “They want to know what’s happening.” Despite those assurances, other Fort Hancock officials say the situation is worsening. Mike Doyle, chief deputy sheriff of Hudspeth County, has said he’s received word that drug cartels have threatened to kill children in U.S. schools unless 5,000-peso ransoms are paid. And Fort Hancock Schools Superintendent Jose Franco has recently increased security and patrols around schools...more