Thread: Under the Streets of Nogales, Arizona

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The Battle for the Border Begins Under the Streets of Nogales, Arizona

By Dan Marries/KOLD News 13

Posted: 2/04/07

Members of the of the United States Customs and Border and Protection's tunnel team have earned the nickname "tunnel rats". It's term used during the Vietnam war used to describe U.S. soldiers and Marines who enter the infamous Cu Chi tunnels in search of enemy forces. Now it's a different battle; the battle to secure the border under ground. I went down with the tunnel team in these once open waterways where I quickly found out it's another world just a few feet beneath the busy streets of Nogales, Arizona.

The biggest of the two drainage tunnels is called the Grand Tunnel, "it's not a labyrinth by any stretch of the imagination. It's just a huge tunnel with a lot of small offshoots," explains Agent Gus Soto." He says in recent years the number of illegal immigrants, drug and human smugglers trying to sneak into the U.S. through the tunnels has increased, "it is completely pitch black down here I could not see my hand in front of me if I were to place it there." But agents use the lack of light to their advantage. Equipped with night vision goggles and infrared flashlights Soto says they can sneak up on unsuspecting smugglers in stealth mode, "the infrared lense, in this case attached to the flashlight, will illuminate the person without the person being able to see the light giving the agent a complete view of what the person is carrying whether that could be narcotics and or a weapon." Agents don't rely solely on their high tech gadgetry. Traditional tracking methods still come in handy, "those are the footprints of a young child. These are all footprints of illegal immigrants making their way north."

"It's not a good place to be," says Tunnel Team Member Robert Stewart. He and his fellow agents can move quickly and quietly on their bikes, "we spend several hours a shift down here, we do several sweeps during the day looking for activity, once we detect activity we lay in wait for it to come north then we'll apprehend it." We're continuously coming across personal hygiene items in the tunnel. At one stop there's a toothbrush, deodorant, even a pair of socks. Soto says they were dropped off by an illegal immigrants as they made their way north. They use the items to clean themselves. The tunnels are dirty and they want to look clean when they pop up to the surface in an effort to hide the fact they're illegal border crossers.

As we continue our walk south towards the border Agent Soto gives a warning, "watch out, there's the hole I was talking about." It's one of the many hidden dangers in here. It resembles a big sinkhole about five feet long and a couple feet wide filled with dirty stagnant water, "you step in that you actually go all the way to your neck. It's almost like quicksand," Soto tells us.

Just a few yards from the actual boundary line is a pair of ominous steel gates. Soto says they're meant to slow down illegal border crossers but they can't stop them, "it doesn't stop them completely because you can break through this. They have to be engineered to break because of the potential problems of flooding the city with the monsoons or rainstorms that happen." Day in and day out the tunnel team patrols the under ground world of human and drug smuggling; doing its part in the battle to the secure the border. The element of surprise is important to the tunnel team that's why they don't have a set schedule of when they conduct their underground patrols. They'll just drop down below the surface at different times of the day so smugglers won't be able to establish a pattern, because they do pay attention, the smugglers are always trying to outsmart the Border Patrol.







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I am willing to bet that a large part of the US has no idea this is going on. I remember how fascinated I was when I heard about it, and quite honestly, I still am.

Why can they not gate the large main tunnel? Use strong enough bars & materials that won't allow them to squeeze or cut through. If the city is worried about the gates getting clogged up and water backing up they could have a city crew clean it out regularly. Install a hidden camera to monitor the gate from a central station like they do for traffic on the highways. It's not rocket science folks.

Originally Posted by JadedBaztard

Why can they not gate the large main tunnel? Use strong enough bars & materials that won't allow them to squeeze or cut through. If the city is worried about the gates getting clogged up and water backing up they could have a city crew clean it out regularly. Install a hidden camera to monitor the gate from a central station like they do for traffic on the highways. It's not rocket science folks.

Smoke bombs are cheap and easy.

Originally Posted by JadedBaztard

Why can they not gate the large main tunnel? Use strong enough bars & materials that won't allow them to squeeze or cut through. If the city is worried about the gates getting clogged up and water backing up they could have a city crew clean it out regularly. Install a hidden camera to monitor the gate from a central station like they do for traffic on the highways. It's not rocket science folks.

I saw this on television this weekend. It was stated that there are 4 tunnels that begin in office buildings in Mexico and end here in a warehouse in the US. Additionally, these tunnels are wide enough for 2 aliens to travel side by side and stand completely upright while traveling through them. What angered me more than the tunnels being allowed to exist is that is estimated that it would only cost approximately $2.7 million to cement them off. Why has this not been done?

I think this was posted elsewhere. A suggestion was made that a few pounds of C4 plastic explosives would do the trick. I was under the impression though that the tunnels in THIS article were drainage tunnels, not something that smugglers built. If they WERE built by the smugglers and are NOT for water control then heck yeah, BLOW THEM SHUT.

Sounds like Congress has more work to do.

A Bill to recognize the more recent heritage of the United States as a nation of immigrants from the sewers.

Originally Posted by JadedBaztard

Why can they not gate the large main tunnel? Use strong enough bars & materials that won't allow them to squeeze or cut through. If the city is worried about the gates getting clogged up and water backing up they could have a city crew clean it out regularly. Install a hidden camera to monitor the gate from a central station like they do for traffic on the highways. It's not rocket science folks.

its not rocket science, but do you think city officials have the capacity to think of smart ides like this... maybe you should call them and suggest this to them

WhatMattersMost Wrote:

Additionally, these tunnels are wide enough for 2 aliens to travel side by side and stand completely upright while traveling through

There are some big enough to drive a car through.
At the Calif/Mex border some have been closed off with rock and boulders from the mountains.