Poverty and joblessness aren’t the only factors keeping Mexican immigrants in the United States from returning to their home country. Now they have another reason -- panic over the high levels of violence, a result of the so-called “war on drugs” launched by President Felipe Calderón.

Of the more than 16,205 murders committed in México during the Calderón administration, the majority has occurred in the states of Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Baja California, Durango, Michoacán and Guerrero. The most violent year in the last decade was 2009, with 7,724 murders, in addition to a spike in kidnappings (mostly committed by drug traffickers), reaching 111 per month.

Luis Carvajal, a 30-year-old immigrant from Sinaloa, says he feels very “sad” over what is happening in his state. “All my relatives who are there,” he says, “tell us the violence has reached a degree they’ve never seen before.”

And while the federal government has launched an intensive media campaign to gain the trust of the Mexican people (both inside and outside of the country)—constantly ensuring them that it is winning the war—the dire statistics present a different reality. In January 2010 so far, 370 people have been killed in Sinaloa, including three journalists.

“Sinaloa has always been known because that’s where the big drug lords are from,” says Carvajal. “I remember when I lived there, there was violence, but nothing compared to what’s happening now. In my neighborhood (Los Mochis) there were never shootings, and now they happen every day, at all hours. People are killed daily.”

Carvajal, who has lived in the United States for six years, adds with obvious indignation, “A few days ago, they killed and hanged two people from a bridge in Los Mochis. That was unthinkable two years ago.”

The federal ...