Texas charities curb Mexico outreach amid violence

10:54 AM CST on Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Associated Press

EL PASO, Texas -- With the death toll in the Mexican city of Juarez mounting, the increasingly bloody struggle for control of the city across the Rio Grande from El Paso can now count one more victim: charity from its American neighbor.

At least two church groups have chosen not to send members over the border to aid the poor because of the ongoing drug cartel war.

“It pains us. The violence is out of hand. We actually had a parishioner who was kidnapped, so it’s too close to home,â€