Secret Passage..Hole to China? Or Maybe Something Else!

On Monday a secret underground passage was found. This was not a hole to China but instead a 1300 foot tunnel leading from Mexico to Tecate, California which is close to the Mexican border. This may seem like an original way to cross the border but in fact there have already been 56 other tunnels found, and authorities seem to think there are many more that lie below the surface having yet to be discovered.



The picture to the right shows the hole that was in a shipping container in Tecate that connects to a similar hole in an office building in Mexico. This hole drops down three stories and uses three latters on both sides. In this shipping container in Tecate they found 14,000 pounds of marijuana worth $5.6 million on the street. This proved that this tunnel served one main purpose, transporting drugs.



Tunnels are not the only thing that border control is concerned with. They are also concerned with more and more rickety boats they have found on San Diego beaches. Other immigrants have hollowed out dashboards of vans and crammed themselves in these tiny spaces to sneak across the border since the increase in border control following September 11th.

Most of these tunnels are just crawlspaces dug to smuggle people quickly. However others are more elaboratge with drainage, lighting and ventilation proving that these smugglers have been assisted by engineers. This hole like others will be sealed and filled with cement. Few people have been persecuted for this but this year a new law was enacted stating that building such a tunnel is a felony.

This could be compared to the time during World War 2. During this time the Jews were trying to flee their homleands to find safety and were turned down by nations, coincidentally the United States was one of them. We now look back and realize that denying them admitance into the United States was wrong and see that we should not have neglected them. In 50 years we could be saying the same thing about not allowing some Mexican residents admittance into the United States. Some of them might be facing troubles in their home countries and are looking for a place of safety that the United States is suppose to represent.