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Border Tunnel Prevention Act
In the five years following September 11, 2001, 45 tunnels were found along borders of the United States. Forty-four of those tunnels were found along the southern border and 26 of those were located along the border with California.
I traveled to San Diego in February 2006 to visit the site of one of these tunnels – a half-mile long tunnel stretching from an abandoned warehouse in San Diego all the way to Tijuana, Mexico.
The tunnel was the longest cross-border tunnel discovered in U.S. history, and was more than nine stories below ground. The tunnel had ventilation and groundwater drainage systems, cement flooring, lighting, and a pulley system. Authorities seized over 4,200 pounds of marijuana in the tunnel, and have attributed the operation to a well-known Mexican drug cartel.
We know that weapons, drugs, and even terrorists can be smuggled through these border tunnels.
Because of tunnels like this, I introduced legislation to close a loophole in federal law by criminalizing the act of constructing or financing a tunnel or subterranean passage across an international border into the United States.
The Border Tunnel Prevention Act was signed into law in October 2006. The legislation criminalized two types of conduct. First, the construction or financing of an unauthorized tunnel or subterranean passage across an international border into the United States, making it a crime punishable by a term of imprisonment up to 20 years. Second, recklessly permitting others to construct or use an unauthorized tunnel or subterranean passage on their land, making it a crime punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to 10 years.
Any person who is convicted under this law and who uses a tunnel or subterranean passage to smuggle aliens, weapons, drugs, terrorists, or illegal goods will be punished by doubling the sentence for the underlying offense. In addition to imprisonment, the legislation ensures that assets involved in the offense, or any property traceable to the offense, may be subject to forfeiture to the U.S. Government. And again, property owners who recklessly disregard the existence of tunnels on their land will be held to account.
Our borders are our first line of defense. In the interest of national security, we must prevent the construction of secret, underground passageways into the United States. Today we have a federal crime to punish those involved with the financing, construction, and use of border tunnels.
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