A career foreign service, characterized by excellence and professionalism, is essential in the national interest (22USC3901)

(Click on the picture to see a list of the top 10 places Americans got arrested overseas in 2006)

We broke our contract in Costa Rica on the gamble that TJ would get called for training for the Foreign Service during the 2010-11 school year. "Professional"? Maybe not. But apparently, it was "essential," because in October 2010, TJ found out he would start A-100 training in January 2011. The last few months have been full of "interest," particularly in where his first post assignment would be.

The first week of February revealed our destination: Tijuana, Mexico. Moving across the border from San Diego doesn't exactly feel "foreign," but it was an "excellent" assignment compared to what he expected: Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Both cities are dangerous for Americans, but the former is more in terms of arrests while the latter is in terms of murders.

Tijuana has consistently been ranked No. 1 on the list of places where most Americans get arrested abroad. According to The Los Angeles Times, in 2006, the number was 520, and in 2009, it was 687, a 30 percent increase; the 687 number was more than the three runners-up (London, Mexico City, and Hong Kong) combined. In contrast, the number of arrested in Ciudad Juarez in 2009 was only 58, compared to 90 in 2006. State Department officials explain this difference with greater policing in Tijuana. Many others would explain it by simply saying that Americans are not the ones causing most of the problems in Ciudad Juarez.

According to a travel warning from the Department of State, more than half of all Americans killed in Mexico during 2009 were killed in Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana; however, since 2006, three times as many people have been murdered in Ciudad Juarez than in any other city in Mexico, contributing to its nickname "the murder capital of the world." Foreign Service employees have been targeted in Ciudad Juarez: Three people attending a consulate event were killed in a drive-by shooting in March 2010. The reasons for many murders in both cities have to do with drugs; Americans can get caught in firefights between rival cartels. Some say the reason there are fewer murders in Tijuana is that one cartel has taken control of the city, reducing the likelihood of public violence.

Diplomatic immunity can shield us from arrests, but not murders, thus we feel we have had some luck on our side in this assignment. Hard as it might be to believe, TJ is looking forward to starting his "career" in Tijuana. He will drive for the border in April, and I will join him after school lets out in June. As our arrival gets closer, we grow more excited than scared of what "characterizes" Tijuana. After all, Ciudad Juarez doesn't have fish tacos.