Where's the Holloway coverage with other missing Americans?

Two southwestern states, Arizona and New Mexico, declared states of emergency at their borders with Mexico over the issue of illegal immigration. Meanwhile, Nuevo Laredo and other Mexican border communities are awash in bloodshed as rival gangs kill one another and anyone else who gets in the way over control of the lucrative drug trade and its routes. Mexico, gearing up for a presidential race in 2006, is arguably in tatters, with no solution to its or our problem of illegal aliens. Countries with effective economies, functioning judiciaries and law enforcement agencies that are not in thrall to or chilled by drug cartels have neither as major exports their own citizens nor cities requiring federal takeovers in feeble attempts to achieve order.

But these two problems - illegal immigration and drugs - have one thing in common that is routinely given short shrift by observers of the situation. That would be the United States - its unhealthy and seemingly insatiable appetite for illegal drugs and its limited need for unskilled workers.

Recently, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza said he closed the U.S. consulate in Nuevo Laredo to punish Mexico's government for its inability to stem border violence. Later, he said he was acting to protect U.S. lives. Earlier, he requested that the State Department issue three travel advisories alerting U.S. citizens and residents to the dangers of traveling to Mexico's border regions. All travel advisories were curtailed by political forces.