From the Tornado Bus Company's terminal in east Houston, passengers travel to a variety of destinations, but these days their thoughts are pre-occupied with one destination in particular: Mexico.
"It has affected my decision of going or not going," Juan Carceaga said.
Carceaga says he worries about his mother's safety, as well as his own, when he visits her in Mexico.
“It is a concern to the Hispanic passengers, the things happening down there, but it's not slowing them down that much," says Henry Clyde, the safety coordinator for Tornado's Houston branch.
Clyde says, so far, the struggling economy is having a bigger impact on business than what's happening along the border.
Ninety-eight percent of the Tornado Bus Company's passengers are Hispanic. It transports hundreds of people to Mexico each day, thousands of people each week. While the company says it's seen only a slight decline in ridership because of violence on the border, it urges passengers to use caution.
"When waiting in terminals along the border, we ask them to stay inside if at all possible," says Clyde. "We also tell them in they're outside purchasing anything from a vendor to not show any large sums of money."
Azucena Presas knows the precautions all too well. She lives in Monterrey.
"You don't have the same sense of security when you leave your house," she says. "There's a lot of talk that people get assaulted on the highway."
For that reason, Presas says she chooses to travel during daylight when possible and very seldomly in darkness.
