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Discovery of hidden border tunnel leading to El Paso signals shift in smuggling tactics

Wood beams reinforce a border smuggling tunnel that starts in in Ciudad Juarez and leads to a storm drain in El Paso. The structure is has lighting and a ventilation system and is about six feet tall and four feet wide and is large enough for an average adult to walk through.
U.S. Border Patrol El Paso sector
Wood beams reinforce a border smuggling tunnel that starts in in Ciudad Juarez and leads to a storm drain in El Paso. The structure is has lighting and a ventilation system and is about six feet tall and four feet wide, large enough for an average adult to walk through.

Along this stretch of West Texas border the number of migrants arriving in El Paso seeking asylum has plummeted but a hidden border tunnel may be an indication smuggling organizations are adapting to changing enforcement conditions.

Construction of the "man-made" tunnel happened last year according to investigators. During that time the Biden administration imposed tighter restrictions limiting how people could claim asylum at the border. Border enforcement is expected increase even more as Donald Trump takes office again.

El Paso has been among the busiest for Border Patrol during Biden’s term leading the nation in “encounters” in 2023. So many people arrived in 2022 that Border Patrol set up large tents near the banks of the Rio Grande and a mobile processing center to deal with the spike.

Apprehensions this month average about 150 day and the processing center and holding facility in El Paso is well below capacity according to a Border Patrol spokesperson.

Smuggling organizations seem to have shifted their primary strategy from shepherding migrants across the border to turn themselves to focusing more on sneaking people into the country. On January 9th Border Patrol agents in El Paso discovered a hidden tunnel that runs under the concrete structure that holds Rio Grande water in this region.

The tunnel begins in Ciudad Juarez and connects to a storm drain in El Paso. About six feet tall and four feet wide, it’s designed for an average sized adult to walk through. The structure is also equipped with lighting, a ventilation system, and braced by wood beams according to Border Patrol.

Agents with the Confined Space Entry Team detected the tunnel while inspecting storm drains near the border. “Our Agents are relentless in searching and surveying every square mile of the El Paso Sector,” El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Anthony Scott Good said in a statement released after the discovery of the tunnel.

Smugglers routinely try to use storm drains in the El Paso area to move people across the border. Tunnels are not as common. The last man-made tunnel discovered in the region in 2010 was rudimentary according to Border Patrol. This tunnel is “elaborate and sophisticated” Agent Claudio Herrera-Baeza said calling the discover “historic.”

U.S. and Mexican authorities are gathering evidence inside the tunnel as part of a joint investigation. Members of Mexico’s National Guard are guarding the entrance until it can be sealed. Workers have begun pouring concrete into the tunnel.

“Special agents with HSI El Paso and HSI Ciudad Juarez continue working closely with our law enforcement partners on both sides of the border to try to identify the individuals and transnational criminal network responsible for the construction and operation of the cross-border tunnel discovered last week,” Special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations in El Paso Jason T. Stevens said.

HSI is encouraging anyone with information about “this or any other cross-border tunnel” to call their tipline at 877-4-HSI-TIP (877-447-4847).

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