Rising violence in Mexico has caused some University student groups to cancel spring break trips across the border.The upswing in drug-related violence has prompted the U.S. State Department to issue a travel alert for citizens traveling into Mexico. The State Department warned of violent crimes taking place in daylight hours in crowded places. Reports of this violence has caused The Refuge, a student religious organization, to cancel its mission trip to the border town of Acuna, Mexico. The Refuge takes the trip annually to provide free medical care and evangelize to impoverished citizens of the town. But this spring break, the risk of potential violence was too great.”There were reports of deaths around [Acuna], so we are not going to get involved in that,” said Sarah Borne, administrative assistant to the college pastor at the Chapel on the Campus. “We didn’t want to take any chances and bring 90 students if it was going to be so dangerous.”The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced on Tuesday it will send 100 additional U.S. customs agents, as well as provide an additional $700 million to “do everything we can to prevent the violence in Mexico from spilling over across the border,” according to a news release.While these violent crimes are primarily directed at members of drug trafficking organizations, U.S. citizens have been among victims of homicide and kidnapping in the border region, according to the State Department travel alert.The prospect of being targeted by the violence caused civil engineering junior Patrick Radecker to cancel a spring break rock climbing trip to Mexico after reading about the violence. “Mexico wasn’t the safest in the first place, but we were going to be passing through with thousands of dollars of gear, and let alone on being white kids, it just seemed like a bad idea,” Radecker said. “Being American, I think it puts a little bit of a target on our back.”Borne said having such a large group played a part in assessing the risk involved with the trip.”If we were not taking such a big group, I wouldn’t think it would be such a problem,” Borne said. “It’s easy to lose someone. We just didn’t want to take the chance.”The Refuge has scheduled a mission trip in conjunction with Campus Crusade to a college campus in Bolivia during spring break but isn’t counting out the prospect of returning to Mexico next year, Borne said.Britteny Kelley, kinesiology senior, said she is disappointed about not going to Mexico but is looking forward to a trip to Bolivia.”It is kind of sad because … hundreds of Mexicans go through the free medical clinic,” Kelley said. “Bolivia is kind of different … We are going to meet students and practice English with them and tell them we love Jesus.”—-Contact Xerxes A. Wilson at [email protected]