Border patrol agents in Texas have reportedly discovered a 60-foot tunnel being built near the Rio Grande River leading toward Mexico. Authorities found the tunnel, which was still under construction, in Hidalgo, Texas, a local CNN affiliate reported Friday. ADVERTISEMENT "You've seen them on the news in Arizona and New Mexico and stuff like that, but I've never seen one in the Valley,” Orthal Brand Jr., who is president of the Hidalgo County Water Improvement District 3, told the local station. “That's the first one I've seen that's in our back yard." Brand said he has used his agency's resources to aid federal authorities in the past, but he told the station that getting rid of the tunnel won’t be easy. The tunnel is reportedly hidden near the bottom of a 30-foot embankment and is very difficult to see. “It’s hard for me to put a piece of equipment on the edge of a 30-foot sand cliff, and reach down and try to collapse something, without putting my own piece of equipment and my operator at risk,” he said. Brand said he is working with the Border Patrol and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to find another way to get rid of the tunnel. He told the Rio Grande Guardian earlier this week that his team also plans to enlist the help of an explosion company. “My men climbed down and looked at it. It needs dynamite to blow it. I would like to praise the marine division of Border Patrol,” he told the international news service. “Boots on the ground would not have seen it. Helicopters would not have found it. Drones, sensors, would never have found it,” he added. “You could only see it from the river. They looked at the cliff and found it. It was all covered up with bamboo and brush. It looked kind of dry, which alerted them to it.”<doc-sep>Border Patrol agents in Texas found a surprise during a patrol: another tunnel on the U.S.-Mexico border that would run along property proposed for a portion of President Donald Trump's proposed wall. The tunnel, located outside of Hidalgo, Texas, is near a portion of the border wall put up about 10 years ago, the Rio Grande Guardian news service reports. Additionally, the tunnel begins at the bottom of a 30-foot embankment on the Rio Grande and is impossible to see unless you are on the river. The tunnel, which was still being constructed at the time it was discovered, is about 1,500 feet downriver from the Hidalgo County Water Improvement District No. 3 pump station. "You've seen them on the news in Arizona and New Mexico and stuff like that, but I've never seen one in the [Rio Grande Valley]. That's the first one I've seen in our backyard," Hidalgo County Water Improvement District (HCWID) No. 3 General Manager Othal Brand Jr. told KRGV TV. The tunnel is about 60 feet in length, and Brand said he thought it was going to a nearby sports rental business. "Our suspicion is they were going to come up in one of these rental units and store their stuff there and just pick it up when they want. They were deep enough to go under that wall without any problem," Brand told the Rio Grande Guardian. The construction of the tunnel impressed Brand, who said that it was fortified with 4-by-4's and plywood on the top and the sides. Even building the tunnel was an astounding achievement, Brand said, due to the soft sand on the embankment. Brand said that he has assisted the Border Patrol before, providing equipment it doesn't have, but it's too dangerous to use machinery to reach the tunnel and pull it down. Instead, a company will place explosives and demolish the tunnel in the next couple of weeks, the Rio Grande Guardian said. State lawmakers toured the area last week, and their itinerary included a tour of the pump station. However, HCWID No. 3 employees noticed drug runners on the other side of the border a few hours before legislators were set to arrive, prompting the tour's cancellation. Brand said that instances like that also mean employees should leave the area for their own safety, as the pump station's boat ramp is the easiest place in the area for drug runners to cross into the U.S. While the runners did not utilize the boat ramp that day, Brand told the Rio Grande Guardian that he wished the lawmakers could have seen them and perhaps understood what he and his employees experience every day. The Texas tunnel isn't the first instance of individuals digging under the wall or the border to gain entry into the United States. Earlier this month, over 600 migrants entered the country through tunnels dug under sections of the border wall in Arizona and New Mexico.<doc-sep>
Border Patrol agents have reportedly discovered a 60-foot-long tunnel in Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border. The tunnel, which is seemingly under construction to stretch toward Mexico, was discovered on the American side of the border, near the Rio Grande River in Hidalgo, Texas, KRGV reported on Wednesday. TRUMP DISMISSES BORDER WALL NEGOTIATIONS AS 'WASTE OF TIME' Hidalgo is roughly 10 miles away from McAllen, a town President Donald Trump visited last month during a trip to the southern border. Border agents, according to the news outlet, claimed they showed Trump photos of the tunnel during his visit. The border security agency reportedly contacted Othal Brand, Jr., of the Hidalgo County Water Improvement District 3, for assistance. "You've seen them on the news in Arizona and New Mexico and stuff like that but I've never seen one in the Valley,” Brand said of the tunnel. “That's the first one I've seen that's in our back yard." The tunnel is nearly impossible to see from the Rio Grande River, at the bottom of a 30-foot embankment, and is located roughly 1,500 feet down the river from Brand's county water pump station, according to the report. Brand told the Rio Grande Guardian that the tunnel was "some impressive work, it is not easy work building a tunnel like that." “The cliff they dug through is a soft sand. The diggers push a piece of pipe into the earth and as they do they remove the sand. As they do that they keep pushing the pipe in. Once they get far enough in they erect these 4x4s and plywood on each side and the top," Brand continued. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The tunnel is reportedly scheduled to be blown up within the coming weeks. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.