Beneath the bustling streets of El Paso lies a clandestine network of storm drains, a sprawling ‘city underneath our city’ that U.S. Border Patrol agents reveal is actively exploited by Mexican cartels to smuggle illegal migrants into the United States. In a rare, exclusive look, Fox News joined the elite Confined Space Entry Team (CSET) as they navigated the dangerous, mile-long maze of tunnels, a journey that takes migrants 45 minutes to an hour through oppressive heat and unpredictable oxygen levels. Cartels are leveraging hundreds of exit points scattered across neighborhoods, parks, and commercial areas, with agents warning that smugglers could emerge from schools, backyards, and playgrounds at any moment. Evidence of past crossings, including tools and personal identification, litter the entrances near the Rio Grande, despite Border Patrol’s use of advanced technology to monitor movement within the system. While apprehensions in these tunnels have decreased from peak crisis levels, agents still intercept migrants, and smugglers, desperate to fund global networks, are charging exorbitant fees of $20,000 to $30,000 per person for passage through this perilous underground route.
Adapted from: U.S. News Today on Fox News
