Mexico's southern border awash in crime and violence

Tim Johnson of McClatchy Newspapers has an article up on Mexico's southern border awash in crime and violence.  He provides a decent description of the porous border between Mexico and Guatemala. However, I don't really care for the introduction.

If the border that separates the United States and Mexico is fairly easy to penetrate, then Mexico's other border - the southern one, abutting Guatemala - is virtually a sieve.

If the US-Mexico border were actually "fairly easy to penetrate", immigrants from Latin America and around the world would not be paying $5,000 or more for people to take them across Mexico and into the United States. Years ago, migrants could cross the border on their own or pay a coyote a small amount to help them.

If the US-Mexico border were actually "fairly easy to penetrate", several hundred people would not be dying each year from a variety of causes including murder and exposure to the elements (heath stroke, dehydration, hypothermia). And the number killed crossing the border does not include the hundreds, most likely thousands, that are killed each year crossing Mexico on their way north.

A lot of people successfully cross the US-Mexico border each day. However, I guess I just don't agree with the description that it's "fairly easy to penetrate."