Despite President Donald Trump’s tight clamp on the border, cartels are continuing to attempt to smuggle humans and narcotics by going underground using a vast network of storm drain tunnels in El Paso.U.S.Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) elite Confined Space Entry Team gave Fox News an exclusive look inside the narrow tunnels, which stretch for miles across the region.There are 32 entry points into the tunnels from the Rio Grande and hundreds of exit points throughout the city.
The team said this makes patrolling the tunnels a game of "whack-a-mole" because smugglers can pop out of storm drains at any point.According to CBP, it is much more difficult for Border Patrol agents to detect and intercept smugglers using these secret routes.
Nevertheless, they use technology to detect movement underground, monitor entry points and strategically position teams to intercept groups.The greatest challenge, a team member told Fox News, is the heat and the time spent in the tunnels’ thick, low-oxygen air.He said that often by the time they encounter a cartel smuggler, "you’re already exhausted, and now, you have to potentially fight with someone underground."EXCLUSIVE: GUATEMALAN NATIONALS PLEAD GUILTY TO HORRIFIC HUMAN SMUGGLING CRASH THAT KILLED 56, INJURED 100+A U.S.
Border Patrol agent works at the border to seal an illegal cross-border tunnel which was originally discovered on January 10, 2025, between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on March 11, 2025.(HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images)"You can’t call for backup; you can’t call for help.
It’s just you and your team versus everybody else," he said.Team members said that the number of migrants being smuggled through the tunnels has dropped dramatically under Trump.Whereas there would regularly be groups of 40 to 60 people moving through the tunnels, agents now typically encounter two or three at a time.Still, the smugglers have not stopped entirely.
Reports indicate that cartels have significantl...