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Juárez is Mexico’s deadliest city with 2,000 murders so far this year. Some residents are breaking the law to save their lives. They’re fleeing north to Texas on tourist visas and they intend to stay. Correspondent Monica Ortiz Uribe has the story.

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caught at the official US ports of entry. Roger Maier is a spokesman for US Customs and Border Protection.

ROGER MAIER: Our officers in El Paso encounter, any week, probably 125 to 150 immigration-related violations.

URIBE: Maier says visa violators have always existed even before the violence erupted in Mexico. Many use their tourist visa to work in the United States.

MAIER: During the course of our interview and inspection you know in some cases we’re able to determine that that person is either residing in the United States or working in the United States which is not allowed under that visa class.

URIBE: Those who are caught can lose their visa and be prohibited from returning to the United States. For Ortensia and her parents it’s a risk they’re willing to take right now.

ORTENSIA: I try not to think about it very hard. I just let God do his work. I already did mine.

URIBE: It’s much more difficult to track visa violators once they’re already in the country. Ortensia has submitted paperwork to secure her parent’s residency, a process she expects will only take a couple of years. In the meantime she and her parents miss their lives in Mexico every day. But going back is just not realistic.

ORTENSIA: I’m very proud to be a Mexican. And if I had a chance to survive with my family, to have the chances for them to study, yeah I’ll be happy to live there. But there’s no chances. Not for us.

URIBE: For The World I’m Monica Ortiz Uribe in El Paso, Texas.

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