As extortions, kidnappings and killings have increased in the formerly quiet Mexican state of Aguascalientes, citizens there have begun to migrate to the United States, and North Texas is one of the more popular destinations, reports the Dallas Morning News. Aguascalientes, known as Mexico's Rhode Island because of its small size, had a reputation for the best quality of life and safest neighborhoods – "rich in culture and rich in boredom, the good kind," quipped Irma Carrillo, an education professor at the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes.
The new arrivals in Texas are people who felt they were left with no choice but to leave Mexico due to crime. With the U.S. putting more pressure on smuggling routes along the Gulf Coast in recent years, drug smugglers have rerouted cocaine and marijuana shipments to the Pacific Coast, particularly through the southern state of Guerrero and the northwestern states of Michoacán and Jalisco, said Arturo Islas, an expert on national security issues.
