As Trump wants wall, underground tunnels are discovered at US-Mexico border: report

Washington, Jan 15: US President Donald Trump might be shouting his lungs out over building a wall along the country's southern border with Mexico to secure the people from external threats like illegal immigrants, but it might not be enough even if it is built. Recently, American authorities have found a number of tunnels dug under the US-Mexico border.

Reporting about the discovery of the tunnels of varying length, the Washington Post has said that the officials suspect that these tunnels have been made in the past one month to smuggle illegal contraband or people from across the border. The US government is currently witnessing its longest shutdown over President Trump's obstinate demand of $5.7 billion to build the wall, something the Democrat-dominated Congress has disagreed over. Thousands of federal workers in the country have been going without pay since last month because of the stalemate.

"One tunnel is about 50 feet long, unfinished, and stretches across two countries. It starts along the drainage channels that a U.S. border town shares with Mexico, and abruptly ends underneath a parking lot in Arizona. Another one runs about 80 feet, also unfinished. Its opening was found inside an abandoned store in the Mexican border city of Nogales. A third one is about 30 feet, also found somewhere in Nogales, though it's unclear where it starts or ends," the Post said, adding that these are additions to more than 200 tunnels that have been discovered since past.

While the president firmly believes that a wall will keep illegal entrants into the US at bay, not many are willing to buy his views. Experts say that drugs and other things enter the US though various means, including the underground tunnels while a wall only makes it difficult for those who abide by the rules.

"Whether we're talking about drugs or people, where there's a will, there's a way to get around the wall. ... These tunnels underscore the futility of the current debate in the fact that there will be numerous ways in which smugglers and undocumented persons will be able to breach the barriers that we build at the border," the Post quoted David Shirk, an international relations professor at the University of San Diego, as saying.