Since 2006, there have been 30,000 drug cartel-related deaths in Northern Mexico. Increasing violence including the massacre of 72 would-be immigrants to the discovery of a mass grave containing 200 bodies is showcasing the ruthlessness and callousness of these gangsters. Migrants are frequent targets for them. These cartels have effectively gained control of the U.S.-Mexico border zone to the point that immigrant traffickers pay them for safe passage across their land and Mexican law enforcement officials are paid to stay out of their way or even assist in their sordid cause. Immigrants are often kidnapped and held for ransom and, if no family member comes forward to pay, they are killed. Often, immigrants are coerced into the role of drug mule as they are sneaking across the border anyway, then why not carry drugs with them?

Mexican authorities have pledged to crack down on the cartels but with little success. They have instituted some improvements however, such as the use of X-Ray equipment on their Southern border which recently exposed two semi trucks with over 500 migrants being carried between them. The migrants were being carried in dangerously overcrowded, poorly-ventilated conditions and, when interviewed, were discovered to have paid around $7,000 each for the trip into the U.S., much of which is assumed to have gone to the Mexican drug cartels as negotiation money. The migrants had crossed over the border from Guatemala which is quickly becoming America’s illegal immigrant “waiting room” due to liberal visa requirements regarding foreign nationals from many countries such as India and other Central American countries as well as an insufficient border patrol and immigration enforcement system.

The confusing part is that most migrants are acutely aware of the dangers of crossing Mexico. Furthermore, they know that the economic conditions in the U.S. might mean that there won’t be a job waiting for them if they successfully navigate the dangerous trip across Mexico. The fact that they continue to try is proof that the draw of the American dream still attracts foreigners to her borders and testifies to the raw desperation of these individuals. Gang violence is not limited to Mexico but also affects many Central and South American countries. One of the immigrants caught in the semi trucks in Southern Mexico, Eddie Marroqui, said of the conditions for business owners in his home country of Guatemala, saying, "In our countries, the situation is very hard. They're killing for 200 quetzales (about $25), and one can no longer have a business, have a bus, a truck, because if you don't pay the taxes, they attack, and this is the motivation of all the Central Americans who are trying to reach the United States."

The corruption of Mexican officials is particularly disturbing. Mexico seems to finally be taking it seriously and in the month of May, 2011 alone, 200 Mexican law enforcement officials were fired for corruption and 40 more are being investigated. Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington D.C. has said, "I think the Mexican government has finally become concerned about how violent immigrant smuggling has become. We've seen them taking the first step to try to clean up some of the endemic corruption in the immigration service." The U.S. has instituted measures to try to curb Mexican drug violence as well, beginning outgoing border checks of those leaving the U.S. and screening for cash and guns that would inevitably fuel violence. This policy, however, has had a paradoxical effect and illegal immigrants leaving the country in search of greener pastures have been detained and even formally deported.