Thoughts on Laredo

On my plane last night from Phoenix to Chicago, I found myself sitting next to a man in his mid-thirties. We got to talking about travel, and I mentioned that I had traveled recently to Texas, along the border ending in El Paso. He said he had been similar places due to work. It turns out that his company (I'm not sure what kind of company it is...I know he owns a farm with cows on the side) has a testing facility in Laredo, TX. We got to talking about our opinion of the city. He told me that he too had found Laredo strange. He had the option of moving there a few years back temporarily, but decided against it because he didn't want to raise children in that area. I found that to be a very interesting comment.
Additionally, he had crossed the border about five years ago, and had a much different experience than we did. He was shocked that we had stayed across the border, because when he had been there, he had felt very unsafe. He had seen a great number of vehicles and bars with bullet holes in their sides, and felt very much like he was in a place he shouldn't be.
Just interesting to hear a non-architecture student's opinion on the area.