Homeland Security ignores dozens of tunnels from Mexico

U.S. officials have failed to block dozens of tunnels running under the U.S.-Mexico border from California to Arizona, including seven large, sophisticated tunnels, parts of which continue to be used by Mexico’s drug cartels to bring narcotics into the United States.

The most popular is huge, made of concrete, has electricity and ventilation and connects San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico. Another tunnel, jokingly referred to as the Taj Mahal, also remains unfilled after a decade. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says it cannot afford to fill the tunnel.

One Democratic senator from California says DHS has plenty of money for the work and should ask lawmakers if it needs more. More than 20 cross-border tunnels have been discovered in California and Arizona since the September 11 terrorist attacks, he noted. The senator has written to Mexico’s president, detailing how weapons, drugs, people and terrorists can be smuggled through such passageways and specifically noting that Mexican customs inspectors were involved in the construction of a 96-foot tunnel that reaches more than 25 feet into the United States.