Mexican Border, Violence and Death

From Deborah Bonello, at the LA Times's La Plaza blog, a description of the border between the U.S. and Mexico at Tijuana. A huge drug war is being played out right now, with hundreds of bodies truning up along the border, from Tijuana to Ciudad Juarez. At the same time, thousands of illegal immigrants still cross the border, most of them making it to the States, but others being intercepted by the Border Patrol, and others not making it alive. Crosses are strung along the border fence in memoriam:

Luciano Limon Sanchez from Sinaloa. Onesino Salazar Cruz from Oaxaca. Maria Isabel de la Cruz. Some simply said "inidentificado." Unidentified.

I think it's important to remember, no matter your position on the immigration problem from Mexico, that real lives are affected--or destroyed--because of our ambivalent relationship with our neighbor to the south. Throughout my many years in the restaurant industry in New York City, I've know many illegals who made the journey every year. I wonder if they still make it, and whether one of their names will ever be etched onto a cross on that wall.