U.S. closes Consulate at Mexican border

HOUSTON Along with closing the Consulate, the U.S. State Department has issued an official travel advisory warning Americans to steer clear of the border if possible.

Our terrorism expert says conditions are seriously deteriorating in northern Mexico.

While drug cartels battling for smuggling routes into the U.S. is nothing new, terrorism expert and former FBI agent Jim Conway says the violence and visibility of cartel members is reaching new levels.

Just south of the border, he says, cartel members have become so brazen they are now marking their trucks with cartel logos, essentially telling law enforcement they run the towns in part of northern Mexico.

Conway says some areas are reaching the point of lawlessness.

"We are literally seeing a state of anarchy in northern Mexico. That part of the country is literally locked down and that has implications, not only from a security and violence standpoint, but it also has implications for business and commerce," said Conway.

Right now Conway says while Arizona and southern California are seeing violence spill across the border, Texas has so far been spared. However, he says if cartel members do start fleeing into the United States and Texas in particular, we could begin to see the assassinations that have become all too familiar in Mexico.