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Mexican Authorities to Seal Secret Tunnel on US Border

A National Guard agent inspects an illegal tunnel bound to El Paso in US, at the Mexico-US border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on January 18, 2025. (AFP)
A National Guard agent inspects an illegal tunnel bound to El Paso in US, at the Mexico-US border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on January 18, 2025. (AFP)
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Mexican Authorities to Seal Secret Tunnel on US Border

A National Guard agent inspects an illegal tunnel bound to El Paso in US, at the Mexico-US border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on January 18, 2025. (AFP)
A National Guard agent inspects an illegal tunnel bound to El Paso in US, at the Mexico-US border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on January 18, 2025. (AFP)

A clandestine tunnel discovered on the US-Mexico border allowing entry from Ciudad Juarez into the Texan city of El Paso will be sealed by Mexican authorities, an army official said Saturday, adding that its construction was under investigation.

Discovered on January 10 by US and Mexican security agencies, the tunnel measures approximately 300 meters (1,000 feet) in length on the Mexican side and is equipped with lighting, ventilation and is reinforced to prevent collapses.

Hidden in a storm sewer system operating between both cities, its access is about 1.8 meters high and 1.2 meters wide (6 feet high and 4 feet wide), making for easy passage of people or contraband, said General Jose Lemus, commander of Ciudad Juarez's military garrison, which is guarding the tunnel.

The tunnel's construction "must have taken a long time... it could have been one or two years," Lemus told reporters, declining to give details about how long it had been operating as well as its possible builders and operators.

He said the Mexican Attorney General's Office was responsible for the investigation and would be in charge of determining if there was complicity by the authorities due to the fact that it was built without them noticing.

Lemus also said clues about the tunnel's existence and location were discussed by human traffickers on social media platforms like TikTok.

Ahead of the US presidential inauguration of Donald Trump on Monday, both sides of the US-Mexico border have reinforced security measures, as the returning Republican has vowed a massive deportation of migrants soon after he takes office.

In the state of Chihuahua, which includes Ciudad Juarez, authorities reported a fire in a temporary camp for undocumented migrants, which led to the evacuation of 39 adults and 17 minors, according to the state police.

According to the Mexican newspaper Reforma, the fire was started by some of the migrants who were camping there to resist attempts by immigration authorities to detain them and transfer them to Mexico City for later deportation.

The National Institute of Migration did not respond to AFP's requests for comment.

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Triumphant Trump Returns to White House, Launching New Era of Upheaval

A man holds a banner with an image of US President-elect Donald Trump as supporters gather outside Capital One Arena, ahead of a rally for Trump the day before he is scheduled to be inaugurated for a second term, in Washington, US, January 19, 2025. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
A man holds a banner with an image of US President-elect Donald Trump as supporters gather outside Capital One Arena, ahead of a rally for Trump the day before he is scheduled to be inaugurated for a second term, in Washington, US, January 19, 2025. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
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Triumphant Trump Returns to White House, Launching New Era of Upheaval

A man holds a banner with an image of US President-elect Donald Trump as supporters gather outside Capital One Arena, ahead of a rally for Trump the day before he is scheduled to be inaugurated for a second term, in Washington, US, January 19, 2025. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
A man holds a banner with an image of US President-elect Donald Trump as supporters gather outside Capital One Arena, ahead of a rally for Trump the day before he is scheduled to be inaugurated for a second term, in Washington, US, January 19, 2025. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Donald Trump will be sworn in as US president on Monday, ushering in another turbulent four-year term with promises to push the limits of executive power, deport millions of immigrants, secure retribution against his political enemies and transform the role of the US on the world stage.
Trump's inauguration completes a triumphant comeback for a political disruptor who survived two impeachment trials, a felony conviction, two assassination attempts and an indictment for attempting to overturn his 2020 election loss, said Reuters.
The ceremony will take place at noon (1700 GMT) inside the Rotunda of the US Capitol, four years after a mob of Trump supporters breached the symbol of American democracy in an unsuccessful effort to forestall the Republican Trump's 2020 defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. The swearing-in was moved indoors for the first time in 40 years due to the extreme cold.
Trump, the first US president since the 19th century to win a second term after losing the White House, has said he will pardon "on Day One" many of the more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
That promise is among a flurry of executive actions concerning immigration, energy and tariffs that Trump intends to sign as soon as Monday after taking the oath of office. At a campaign-style rally on Sunday in Washington, Trump vowed to impose harsh immigration restrictions on his first day.
As he did in 2017, Trump enters office as a chaotic and disruptive force, vowing to remake the federal government and expressing deep skepticism about the US-led alliances that have shaped post-World War Two global politics.
The former president returns to Washington emboldened after winning the national popular vote over Vice President Kamala Harris by more than 2 million votes thanks to a groundswell of voter frustration over persistent inflation, though he still fell just short of a 50% majority. In 2016, Trump won the Electoral College - and the presidency - despite receiving nearly 3 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton.
Jeremi Suri, a presidential historian at the University of Texas at Austin, compared the present era to the late 19th century, when Grover Cleveland became the only other president to win non-consecutive terms. Like now, he said, that was a time of upheaval, as industrial advances transformed the economy, wealth inequality exploded and the proportion of immigrant Americans reached a historical peak.
"What we're really talking about is a fundamentally different economy, a fundamentally different country in terms of its racial and gender and social makeup, and we are as a country struggling to figure out what that means," he said. "It's an existential moment."
Trump will enjoy Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress that have been almost entirely purged of any intra-party dissenters. His advisers have outlined plans to replace nonpartisan bureaucrats with hand-picked loyalists.
Even before taking office, Trump established a rival power center in the weeks after his election victory, meeting world leaders and causing consternation by musing aloud about seizing the Panama Canal, taking control of NATO ally Denmark's territory of Greenland and imposing tariffs on the biggest US trading partners.
His influence has already been felt in the Israel-Hamas announcement last week of a ceasefire deal. Trump, whose envoy joined the negotiations in Qatar, had warned of "hell to pay" if Hamas did not release its hostages before the inauguration.
Trump claimed during the campaign he would end the Russia-Ukraine war on his first day, but his advisers have acknowledged any peace deal will take months.
Unlike in 2017, when he filled many top jobs with institutionalists, Trump has prioritized fealty over experience in nominating a bevy of controversial cabinet picks, some of whom are outspoken critics of the agencies they have been tapped to lead.
He also has the backing of the world's richest man, Elon Musk, who spent more than $250 million to help get Trump elected. Other billionaire tech leaders who have sought to curry favor with the incoming administration, such as Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet's Sundar Pichai and Apple's Tim Cook, will join Musk in attending Monday's ceremony, according to Reuters and other media.
Trump said on Sunday he will travel to California on Friday to visit fire-ravaged Los Angeles County.
'AMERICAN CARNAGE'
The inauguration will proceed amid heavy security after a campaign highlighted by an increase in political violence that included two assassination attempts against Trump, including one in which a bullet grazed his ear.
Federal authorities are also on alert after the New Year's Day attack in New Orleans, when investigators say a US Army veteran inspired by the ISIS group drove a pickup truck into a crowd of revelers, killing 14. Last week, the FBI warned of potential copycat attacks.
Eight years ago, Trump delivered a bleak inaugural address vowing to end the "American carnage" of what he said were crime-ridden cities and soft borders, a departure from the tone of optimism most newly elected presidents have adopted.
Foreign governments will be scrutinizing the tenor of Trump's speech on Monday after he waged a campaign laced with inflammatory rhetoric.
The traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue past the White House will now take place indoors at the Capital One Arena, where Trump held his victory rally on Sunday. Trump will also attend three inaugural balls in the evening.
Amid the pageantry of the day, Trump will begin signing the first of what could be dozens of executive orders.
Some actions will begin tightening immigration rules by seeking to classify drug cartels as "foreign terrorist organizations" and declare an emergency at the US-Mexico border, among other moves, a source familiar with the planning said. Other orders may aim to scrap Biden's environmental regulations and withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement, sources have said.
Many of the executive orders are likely to face legal challenges.
Trump will be the first felon to occupy the White House after a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business records to cover up hush money paid to a porn star. He escaped punishment at his sentencing, in part because the judge acknowledged the impossibility of imposing penalties on a soon-to-be president.
Winning the election also rid Trump of two federal indictments - for plotting to overturn the 2020 election and for retaining classified documents - thanks to a Justice Department policy that presidents cannot be prosecuted while in office.
In a report released last week, Special Counsel Jack Smith said he had gathered enough evidence to convict Trump in the election case if Trump had reached trial.