Illegal immigrants rescued from Texas sewer after attempt to sneak into US foiled

Over a dozen illegal border crossing migrants had to be rescued from an El Paso sewer this week, after their attempt to sneak into the country backfired.

The fire department, working with US Border Patrol in the Texas border town, had to use a circular saw and other high-powered tools to pry open the storm drain and complete the rescue.

The drains were welded shut last year when the city was being overrun with migrants, as groups were using the sewer system to circumvent the border wall and customs agents and popping up onto the city’s streets.

All 17 illegal migrants were in good health and were taken into custody by immigration officers, and admitted to entering the country illegally.

The migrants were originally from Mexico and El Salvador, a spokesman told The Post, and have all been sent back to Mexico.

El Paso has been the recent epicenter of the border crisis, declaring a state of emergency in December. That same month – when as many as 2,400 migrants were crossing into the city a day – residents claimed to have witnessed migrants crawling out of tunnels, sometimes in groups as large as 30.

A group of six illegal immigrants was spotted by a local news crew after having entered the US wastewater system via openings at the Rio Grande, which serves as the international boundary.

“It’s like an all-day, all-night thing,” Rosalina Tapia explained of her neighborhood. “[Smugglers] picked our complex as a pickup zone.”

At the time, city leaders stated they were stepping up efforts to work with Border Patrol to stop the migrants from using the tunnels, which present dangers like rushing water, which can drown migrants, and venomous snakes.

The agency’s tunnel interdiction team often scours storm drains for migrants, finding over 30 people in one incident two weeks ago.

“Agents are deployed regularly to interdict this commonly used method and to rescue migrant lives commonly placed in danger by smugglers,” the Border Patrol said in a social media post.