El Paso and San Diego too, make the safest cities list http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/The-20-Safest-Cities-In-America-4686739.php . Before the drug wars, El Paso was very tame. Look at any safe cities list and El Paso indeed is usually on it.
Still, I wouldn’t go into Mexico since such skullduggery happens there, by the same token, a lot of people want to stay away from El Paso merely because it is close to the problems in Mexico.
Only if you artificially limit the list by excluding cities below 200,000 -- as this list does.
If you don't play statistical shenanigans like this, El Paso falls below 73% of cities: