Hidden Tunnel Discovery Reignites National Debate

Federal agents say cartels quietly turned part of El Paso’s storm drain system into a hidden border crossing, while Washington still argues over talking points.

Story Snapshot

A man-made tunnel from Ciudad Juarez into El Paso’s storm drains was found in January 2025, complete with lights and ventilation.
Cartel-linked smugglers used that tunnel and storm drain manholes to move migrants under city streets before arrests and prosecutions.
Fox News now calls the system an “extensive maze” with $20,000–$30,000 smuggling fees, but official records confirm only one tunnel so far.
Both parties use the case as ammo in border debates, while federal agencies release only fragments of the full picture.

How the El Paso tunnel and storm drains were turned into a smuggling route

On January 8–9, 2025, federal agents in El Paso uncovered a man-made tunnel running from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, into the Boone Street storm drain on the U.S. side. The tunnel was about six feet tall and four feet wide, with wooden beams, electricity, and a ventilation system so adults could walk through it upright. Agents had to remove a metal plate covering a 36-inch square opening inside a storm drain manhole to reveal the hidden exit into the public system. This was not a random hole in the ground. It was built to plug straight into city infrastructure.

Investigators later tied the tunnel to smuggling operations run by the La N Empresa cartel. Reporting on the case says cartel members built the passage beneath the Rio Grande and linked it to existing storm drains using handheld tools. At the U.S. exit, smugglers used a modified box truck with a trap door to quietly move migrants from the drain into the vehicle. Homeland Security investigators said the tunnel appeared to have been built within the year before discovery, showing this was a fresh, active route, not some old abandoned project.

Who has been prosecuted for using the tunnel and storm drains

Federal court records show this was not just an engineering stunt; people were already using it. Mexican national Ricardo Guadalupe Dominguez, known as “Mago,” was sentenced to 42 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to bring migrants illegally into the United States using cross-border tunnels and storm drains. The Justice Department says he provided vehicles and tools to tamper with storm drains and helped enable the underground route. Another man, 20-year-old Oscar Ivan Carrillo from El Paso, received 33 months in prison for guiding migrants through the tunnel that connected Ciudad Juarez to El Paso.

Investigators say Carrillo and his partners used tools to connect existing storm drains to the tunnel, then led migrants through the hidden passage. At the end, they loaded people into a box truck with a trap door so they could enter the city unseen. These cases matter because they confirm that the storm drain system was not just “potential” infrastructure. Cartel-linked smugglers were already exploiting it, using city drains as the final leg of a cross-border pipeline under a major American community.

How far the storm drain exploitation really goes — facts versus claims

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) says El Paso Sector agents arrested 69 migrants inside the storm drain system in one recent operation. Agents caught 27 migrants in one group and 42 in another near Paisano Avenue, all inside the drains. CBP bluntly states that transnational criminal organizations exploit storm drain manholes in the city of El Paso to smuggle migrants illegally into the United States. That statement backs up the basic concern: the drains are being abused by organized networks, not just random individuals trying their luck.

At the same time, official documents so far confirm only one completed cross-border tunnel tying directly into this storm drain network, the Boone Street tunnel found in January 2025. Court filings and FBI-style releases describe that single passage and related arrests, but they do not list a set of “numerous entry and exit points” that Fox News calls an extensive maze, nor do they provide hard numbers on how many manholes have been altered. CBP and Homeland Security investigators have not released data showing how many more tunnels exist, how often drains are used, or how widespread the practice is across all 300-plus miles of pipes.

Media framing, political spin, and the missing numbers

Fox News correspondent Brooke Taylor’s reporting from El Paso has brought national attention to this underground system, describing it as an “extensive” maze under the city and citing smugglers charging migrants $20,000 to $30,000 for passage through these tight spaces. That fee range lines up with what other outlets often report for high-risk smuggling routes, but, as of now, those specific figures do not appear in public court documents or CBP press releases tied to the El Paso drain tunnel. They come from interviews and field reporting, not from formal case files.

𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐒𝐌𝐔𝐆𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐈𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐌 𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐒 𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐋 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐎, 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐔𝐏 𝐓𝐎 $𝟑𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐀 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃

Fox News got rare access underground with Border Patrol’s elite confined space entry… pic.twitter.com/FEYH0hAOLW

— M.A. Rothman (@MichaelARothman) July 17, 2026

In Washington, this single tunnel and storm drain case has become part of a broader political fight. Supporters of President Trump and many conservatives point to it as proof that border security remains weak and that cartels are outmaneuvering the federal government underground. Many liberals respond by warning that some media coverage leans on dramatic language without full data, and they worry this fuels fear instead of smart policy. What both sides rarely admit is that they are arguing over incomplete information: CBP has openly said criminal groups exploit the drains, yet the same agencies have not released detailed statistics that would show just how large or small the problem really is.

Why this case feeds public distrust in government

For many Americans, especially those over 40 who have watched years of broken promises on immigration and border control, this story hits familiar nerves. People see cartels building a lit, ventilated tunnel into a city’s storm drains while the federal government only seems to react once the route is already in use. They watch politicians on both sides rush to use the case as talking points, but they do not see a clear, transparent plan to map and secure the entire underground system.

Border experts note that smugglers have long used tunnels and drains at other parts of the U.S.–Mexico line, especially in places like Otay Mesa near San Diego, where dozens of tunnels have been found over the years. That broader history shows this is not an isolated idea. It is part of a pattern where criminal networks adapt faster than government systems designed decades ago. The El Paso case suggests that under our streets and our politics, the struggle between cartels and the state is literally going underground — and the public is being asked to trust leaders without being given the full map.