17 illegal immigrants rescued from El Paso sewer and arrested by Border Patrol after bid to sneak into US thwarted
EL PASO, TEXAS: This week, a dozen illegal border crossing migrants were rescued from an El Paso sewer after their attempt to enter the country failed miserably. In the border town in Texas, the fire department and US Border Patrol had to force up the storm drain using a circular saw and high-power tools.
El Paso has emerged as a focal point in the ongoing border issue, having declared a state of emergency back in December. Residents reported having seen migrants crawling out of tunnels the same month, sometimes in groups of up to 30, as many as 2,400 migrants were entering the city daily, as reported by New York Post.
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17 illegal immigrants were from Mexico and El Salvador
Immigration officers arrested the 17 illegal immigrants, who were all in good health and who had all admitted to entering the country unlawfully. According to a spokeswoman, the migrants were all originally from Mexico and El Salvador and have now all been returned to Mexico.
Municipal administrators have raised concerns about the dangers of tunnels used by migrants, including the risk of drowning in rushing water and encountering venomous snakes. They have stated their efforts to work with Border Patrol to deter migrants from utilizing these tunnels.
What happened last year?
In response to an overwhelming number of migrants in the city last year, authorities resorted to welding shut the drains due to reports of groups using the sewer system to evade the border wall and customs officers.
Recently, a local news crew uncovered six individuals who had entered the US sewerage system through gaps at the Rio Grande, which serves as the international border. These individuals were identified as illegal immigrants.
“They are not using the river anymore, they are using the water tunnels to come in,” local resident Rosalina Tapia explained, as reported by New York Post. Smugglers are waiting for the migrants as they get onto the street, according to Tapia, ready to transport them farther into the nation. “They are telling them to hide behind our back door and hide. While they are hiding, the guy calls someone in English or Spanish to come pick them up,” said Tapia.
Tapia added that she is looking to get a rifle because she is concerned for her safety after seeing how some smugglers have tried to flee by getting into parked automobiles. “It’s like an all-day, all-night thing,” Tapia explained. “(Smugglers) picked our complex as a pickup zone.”
The organization's tunnel interdiction team frequently searches storm drains for migrants; two weeks ago, they discovered almost 30 people in one event.
The Border Patrol stated on social media that "agents are deployed regularly to interdict this commonly used method and to rescue migrant lives commonly placed in danger by smugglers."