The news about border violence seems so commonplace nowadays that talking about it almost seems like a waste of time. Yet border violence has escalated in the past year to levels never seen before. With varying degrees of accuracy and humanity, laws on either side of the border reflect the concern about this issue. However, it is true that the real problem is, in practice, far from being addressed.

As much as the immigration system needs reform, the system is not so broken that it cannot be bent to fit the people’s needs. Social activism and humanitarian agencies have been able to relieve migrating people all across the globe. When it comes to immigration to the US from both Mexico and different parts of Central and South America, regulation has been an issue for decades, but there have been agencies that somehow regulated, if not the flow of immigration, at least some part of the wellbeing of those that make that difficult journey. Shelters placed in strategic places have provided food and shelter for the tired and usually abused travellers. Accounts of what happened in the trains and border patrols were made public by people that documented the stories told in these shelters. The government on both sides of the border had broad — if not entirely accurate — estimates of what was going on. And one cannot deny that, despite some bitter incidents, both Mexico and the US have come far in their immigration policies and their treatment of undocumented immigrants in particular contexts and practices.

Now, however, the problem is that the governments on either side of the border are not necessarily taking care of immigration processes anymore; drug trafficking is. From executing governor candidates to dictating the clubs that are able to open up that night, the force of the organized crime that rules the economy of both Mexico and a good number of Latin American countries has been on the rise.

For the (relatively high end) druglord — a criminal with a pragmatic mind — its easier to move people carrying drugs than it is to move the drugs alone. Undocumented immigrants make sense: They are cheaper, can travel on their own, can be used as mules to move the drug from one place to another and will even pay a good amount of money to be crossed. And if they become a burden, they can be discarded as needed.

Last week, 76 people that were being smuggled from Central and South America through the US-Mexico border were caught by drug smugglers in Tamaulipas, 100 miles south of Texas. When they had no money to pay the extortion fees they were asked to pay, they were executed. One man, from Honduras, survived to tell the tale and identify the perpetrators. This is 76 people, including women and teenagers, in one night.

Then, those authorities sent to investigate the crime were found dead a few days later in such a mutilated state that genetic testing was necessary. The deceased immigrants were from at least three different countries, and pictures on the web abound of the caskets with different colored flags in them, showing how the violence lived in one country is far from contained within its borders.

What the war against drugs has done for both Mexico and the USA, amongst (countless) other things, is leave the issue of immigration in hands of the drug trade. Ask Arizona how that’s going for them. SB 1070, as horrifying as it was, was telling of how dire the situation is.

As the entire country chooses sides and the corruption has become so pervasive in every sphere of society that not choosing a side is a death sentence, as the families of politicians keep on living in Texas because they fear for their lives living in the mansions they have for themselves in the most luxurious suburbs in Mexican soils, I feel appalled at the fact that people in the US complain about the Mexican government as if we were the only ones to blame.

There is an overwhelming sensation of impotence in feeling strangled socially and economically by the same powers that have the nerve to come and tell you that you are not doing enough; in the fact that the blood of over 30,000 people is still not getting Johnny to stop snorting coke while in college. Why is drug consumption in the US Mexico’s (or Colombia’s, or Venezuela’s, or Guatemala’s) problem? Why do we get to see our people die while the US paternalistically, condescendingly, disgustingly, gives pats in the back and stern looks as if we had to answer to the fact that drugs have and are and will still be in demand, and that there is little we can about it but see more people die?

“But, the Merida Plan!” says the US. Emm, no. The Merida Plan, an incentive offering millions of dollars for the successful imprisonment of druglords, is the biggest insult the US has thrown Mexico’s way in years. Yeah, go ahead, try fighting a war we all know you cannot win so we can give you money that is maybe enough to pay for half the funeral costs of the government officials that have died in the past year alone. Not to mention how many schools could be built or how many teachers could be paid with that money if it weren’t being used to prosecute drug traffickers.

With the increased border security and the leftover drugs now available to the Mexican captive market, we are getting paid to breed our addicts domestically, without really diminishing the numbers of drug consumption in the States. And the federal government in Mexico agrees, and starts the biggest bloodshed in the country in the past 100 years, while local governments do nothing but blame the federal government about it, failing to respond to the alarmingly rise in crime rate and insecurity in the country. And Congress feels so entitled, so correct. I am in pure admiration of (all of) their ethics.

Next Thursday, several student organizations may get together at the clocktower at night to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mexico’s independence and listen to the national anthem play. We will celebrate because, especially now, it becomes a way to believe there is hope. To believe the chains of economical oppression and corruption can be broken. To believe we are still free. But are we?

Florencia Ulloa is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She may be reached at fulloa@cornellsun.com. Innocent Bystander appears alternate Fridays this semester.