US-Mexico border: Secret tunnel to El Paso to be sealed

A hidden cross-border tunnel used to smuggle migrants and contraband between the US and Mexico will probably be sealed, Mexican border officers have stated.

Operating between Ciudad Juarez in Mexico and El Paso in Texas, which sit subsequent to one another on both aspect of the border, the 300m tunnel was hid in a storm sewer system and solely found final week – regardless of official estimates it took no less than a 12 months to construct.

Investigators are actually trying into whether or not native officers knew of its building.

Safety has been ramped up on either side of the border forward of the inauguration of Donald Trump, who has vowed to launch mass deportations of unlawful immigrants as soon as in workplace.

The tunnel had been strengthened with picket beams to stop collapses and was geared up with lighting and air flow.

Such a construction might have taken no less than a 12 months to construct, military officers stated.

The Mexican Lawyer Normal’s Workplace has been tasked with investigating whether or not native officers had been complicit within the building of the tunnel, Normal Jose Lemus, commander of Ciudad Juarez’s army garrison, instructed Mexican media.

The tunnel was found on 10 January, after US border patrol brokers eliminated a metallic plate protecting the entry gap to the tunnel after which alerted their Mexican counterparts to its existence.

The flow of migrants from Mexico in the US has long overshadowed relations between the two neighboursand have become a defining concern of the 2024 US presidential election race that culminated in Trump’s victory final 12 months.

Raids to detain and deport migrants living in the US without permission could begin as early as Tuesday – the day after Trump formally returns to the White Home – based on US media stories.

Underneath US diplomatic strain, Mexico has been conducting its largest ever migrant crackdown, bussing and flying non-Mexican migrants to the nation’s south, removed from the US border.

However Trump campaigned on a promise to seal the US-Mexico border and his risk to impose 25% tariffs was seen as an try to power Mexico into doing extra to cease undocumented migrants from reaching the southern border of the US.

In response, the recently-elected Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has stated she is going to ask the US take motion to cease the stream of weapons being smuggled from the US into Mexico.