Thread: Border crossing goes awry when man gets stuck in tunnel exit

Border crossing goes awry when man gets stuck in tunnel exit


By Debbi Farr Baker,
UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM

10:00 a.m. October 10, 2006

SAN DIEGO – Fourteen people from Mexico trying to enter the United States through a small man-made tunnel in Otay Mesa ran into a glitch Tuesday morning, when the third person exiting the narrow opening became stuck.

Border Patrol agents using a stationary surveillance camera near the tunnel's exit behind an industrial buidling on Via de La Amistad spotted the first two people as they emerged from the tunnel shortly after 7 a.m.


They then discovered a man stuck in the tunnel, his hips wedged tightly in the concrete opening.

San Diego Fire Department crews, responding to a request that came in at 7:14 a.m., covered the man in blankets and chipped away at the opening. “The challenge was that the tunnel itself was partly concrete,” said Maurice Luque, a fire department spokesman.

Around 8:48 a.m., crews pulled the man out of the hole and then helped two other men and two women out of the tunnel. All were covered in a gray dust.

All were checked by medical personnel. One person was taken to a hospital for evaluation, while the rest were taken to a detention center.

Officials said the other seven people in the tunnel went back to Mexico.

Border Patrol officials suspect the seven who emerged from the tunnel are undocumented immigrants, said Lauren Mack, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman. The group will be processed for deportation, she said.

Border Patrol spokesman James Jacques said the tunnel was connected to the sewer system in the United States. The storm drain system on the Mexican side had been blocked, but someone got access to it.

In recent months, several undocumented immigrants have been found using the sewer system to illegally enter the U.S.

The illegal crossers “are digging small gopher-type holes on the Mexican side of the border and they are climbing into the holes and tapping into the storm drain system,” Mack said. “Then they are using the system to find a manhole to get out on the U.S. side.”

The Border Patrol's Tunnel Task Force has been working with Mexican authorities to investigate these crossings since they learned of them about three months ago, she said.

Jacques said the Border Patrol has discovered 23 tunnels in the last 10 years in the San Diego sector, with 12 of those found in the last 12 months, not counting the one found Tuesday.

Firefighters haven't evaluated the tunnel yet and don't know how long or wide it is. Luque said they planned to send a camera into it.

Fire crews tested the air in the tunnel and found no problem with air quality.

At one point in the rescue, fire officials asked TV news helicopters to move away from the scene because they were making too much noise.

Breaking News Team: (619) 293-1010; breaking@uniontrib.com

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metr ... nnel3.html

If they had MOD EDIT {by me} wouldn't that have been a good deterrant to future law breakers AND plugged up the tunnel at the same time?

Originally Posted by 2ndamendsis

If they had [MOD EDIT], wouldn't that have been a good deterrant to future law breakers AND plugged up the tunnel at the same time?

Originally Posted by 2ndamendsis

If they had [MOD EDIT], wouldn't that have been a good deterrant to future law breakers AND plugged up the tunnel at the same time?

I have been duly reprimanded {very gracefully I must say} and have corrected said problemo.

Border Patrol officials suspect the seven who emerged from the tunnel are undocumented immigrants

Ya think???

Looks like Americans are not the only ones gaining weight.

where are those {Mod Edit} when we need them?

Uh oh, JIM.....that's a no noooo

Love your avatar Jimpasz!

7 'undocumented immigrants' pulled out of storm drain
POSTED: 2:31 p.m. EDT, October 10, 2006


Seven people were caught in a cross-border tunnel in Otay Mesa, California, Tuesday, authorities said.

OTAY MESA BORDER CROSSING, California (CNN) -- Seven "undocumented immigrants" were pulled out of a storm drain Tuesday after border patrol officials saw them trying to use it to enter the United States, San Diego Police spokeswoman Monica Munoz said.

Border patrol surveillance cameras caught the group as they entered the unused drain on the Mexican side of the border across from San Diego, California, Tuesday morning, Munoz told CNN in a phone interview.

When agents got to the scene, they immediately took into custody two people who were outside the drain on the U.S. side.

As the others were being ordered to come out, one person got stuck, and San Diego Fire Department crews had to use jackhammers to widen the drain to allow the person to exit, Munoz said.

One person was taken to a hospital to be treated for minor injuries, she added.

When asked to confirm that all seven in the group were illegal immigrants, Munoz said, "If they had any papers they wouldn't have been coming in through a drain."

Heightened border security since the September 11, 2001, attacks has prompted an increase in the number of people who try to enter the United States via hand-dug tunnels or storm drains, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lauren Mack told CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/10/immigrants.drain/