Senator seeks crackdown on border tunnels

OTAY MESA, California (Reuters) – A U.S. lawmaker proposed
a bill on Tuesday making tunneling under the U.S. border a
federal crime, in a bid to crack down on a surge in the
activity by drug and human smugglers from Mexico.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) proposed a legislative
package making the financing or construction of a tunnel
beneath an international border into the United States a
criminal act, punishable by up to 20 years in jail.

Border police have found 40 tunnels running under the
United State’s borders since the September 11 attacks. The
longest, which was found on January 26, ran for 2,400 feet from
Tijuana to a warehouse in Otay Mesa, California, where
Feinstein gave a news conference.

“Our borders are our nation’s first line of defense, and we
have got to throw the book at the criminals who would build
these tunnels,” Feinstein told reporters gathered at the
warehouse, just a few hundred yards (meters) north of the
border fence with Mexico.

“For years smugglers have tried to go around our border
checkpoints. Now they are trying to go under them. This is a
serious issue not just for San Diego and California, but for
the country,” she added.

At present, digging a tunnel under the United States’
borders with Mexico and Canada is not itself illegal.

Law enforcement sources said most charges brought in
connection with tunnels usually relate to drug smuggling
offenses, not to the digging or financing itself.

Feinstein said the bill also seeks to punish property
owners who permit others to construct or use an unauthorized
tunnel or passage on their land with a jail term of up to 10
years, and the possible forfeiture of assets.

All but one of the 40 tunnels found under the U.S. border
had originated in Mexico, where they had been used by criminals
to smuggle narcotics and people into the United States.

Of these 21 ran beneath the frontier between California and
Mexico, where border police have found eight since January
alone.

They ranged from short, shallow passageways dubbed “gopher
holes” by law enforcement, to sophisticated “mega-tunnels,”
some equipped with lighting, ventilation systems and even
air-conditioning.