WHAT: Marisol Valles-Garcia, 20, made international headlines by becoming police chief of a bloody Mexican border town last October. But now, numerous death threats and an attempted kidnapping have driven her to seek asylum in the U.S.

WHY: Drug violence has transformed the 8,500-person township of Praxedis G. Guerrero into a lawless no-man’s land. Two rival gangs are battling to control its lone highway, a lucrative smuggling route into Texas.

WHAT’S HAPPENING NEXT: The Department of Homeland Security has apparently taken Valles-Garcia under its protection and is keeping her in hiding until she can “present the facts of her case before an impartial immigration judge.”