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CNN Presents

CNN Presents: Battle on the Border

Aired February 04, 2006 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: More than 25,000 people have gathered in Atlanta to pay tribute to a woman who lived with quiet grace and dignity. Coretta Scott King lying in honor in the rotunda of the state capital in Georgia. She is the first woman and the first black person to do so.
Betty Friedan, the spark who ignited the women's rights movement has died. Friedan is best known for her 1963 book, "The Feminine Mystic." She co-founded a national organization for women back in 1963. Friedan died of congestive heart failure at her home in Washington, D.C. Today was her 85th birthday.

Time now, for "CNN PRESENTS: Battle on the Border." Drugs, illegal immigrants, sex trafficking. Anderson Cooper takes you inside the most elaborate smuggling tunnel ever found. Find out what else it was used for.

And at 9 p.m. it is "LARRY KING LIVE." Tonight, Dominick Dunne. Don't miss Larry's interview with the best selling author and celebrated Vanity Fair columnist. That's LARRY KING LIVE tonight at 9 only on CNN.

And I'll see you back here at 10 p.m. eastern with the latest up to the minute news on "CNN SATURDAY NIGHT." I'm Randi Kaye.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Next, on "CNN PRESENTS."

When you're walking in the tunnel, it's easy to get disoriented. It's hard to get a sense of really just how big it is.

A sophisticated tunnel under our border with Mexico unearths some staggering realities.

MIKE CONSUEDO, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, ICE (ph): From the Department of Homeland Security perspective, I mean, we looking at this as a vulnerability to our nation's security. So whether it was drugs or aliens or who knows what else, tunnels are of paramount importance.

COOPER: And above ground, a border so porous human traffickers buy and sell slaves for sex.

CONSUEDO: People would be promised different jobs or different opportunities to come here to the United States, or they'll be kidnapped and forced to come over here.

COOPER: It's a business that profits on broken lives. SISTER DORIS: It just breaks me up terribly. How horrible.

COOPER: Now, some Americans are taking matters into their own hands.

UNIDENTIFIED WHITE MALE: If they see us here, they've got to go somewhere else. They can't cross while we're here.

UNIDENTIFIED WHITE MALE: My founding fathers did not envision us taking care of the entire world.

COOPER: "CNN PRESENTS: Battle on the Border."

We are coming to you from the U.S.-Mexican border and we begin tonight with striking evidence that our border with Mexico is anything but secure.

In fact, I'm practically standing right on top of that evidence.

We're in the Otay Mesa District of San Diego, on the far south end of town. But more importantly, just north of Tijuana and just a few feet beneath us is a tunnel. It runs some 2400 feet, the length of eight football fields from a warehouse in Otay Mesa, crossing the border and emerging precisely inside another warehouse in Tijuana.

And just so you know, what you're about to see is far from unique. Since the attacks on 9/11, agents have uncovered 20 other tunnels, 20 that we know of. But nothings they say -- nothing -- like this one.

ICE agents will tell you this is one of the most sophisticated tunnels they've ever discovered underneath the U.S.-Mexican border. It likely took years to build.

You can see some of the pick marks used. And this is stone so digging through this would take a long time to do.

It's also got electricity. They've wired the entire tunnel with these cables. They have light bulbs on them. There's even a pipe that brings in fresh oxygen. It was pumped in from Mexico.

CONSUEDO: We came in and removed all the bulbs and took those to the lab for fingerprint evidence.

COOPER: Oh, really? You took the bulbs?

CONSUEDO: And then we replaced them with our own light bulbs.

COOPER: Mike Consuedo (ph) is the special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego.

CONSUEDO: And you can see right here there's a junction box for electricity. They probably used these junction boxes in the construction. If they had some sort of electrical tools that were assisting them in the drilling.

COOPER: This tunnel is just one of several that have been discovered by San Diego's tunnel taskforce.

So these are some tools or something?

CONSUEDO: Some tools and some buckets. They may have been scrapping. I'm sure there was probably some repair work to some of the piping that they had to do.

And here's where it really starts getting kind of wet.

COOPER: When you're walking in the tunnel it's easy to get disoriented. It's hard to get a sense of really just how big it is. They say the tunnel's about seven football fields in length underneath the United States and about one football field in Mexico. It's a total, they say, of about 2400 feet.

It's the largest tunnel ICE has ever found under the U.S.-Mexican border.

I mean, it goes -- it's as far as the eye can see. It's just a straight shot all the way down.

CONSUEDO: Exactly. It's as far as you can see.

COOPER: And it looks like there's water all the way through.

CONSUEDO: Yes. And actually this is one of the shallower parts. I was told that on Wednesday night there were parts of the tunnel where people had to wade through up to their chest in water.

COOPER: This basically -- this is like a "T" intersection in the tunnel?

CONSUEDO: Right.

COOPER: What does it tell you? Do you think they made a mistake? Do you think they kept tunneling that way?

CONSUEDO: Well, we don't know if they were headed for some other intended exit or if they made a mistake and got lost in the digging and then had to make a course correction, and then dug this portion that's right behind me.

And then, of course, the straight shot is over into Mexico.

COOPER: When U.S. and Mexican authorities raided the tunnel last week, they discovered more than two tons of marijuana. Officials don't know, however, how many tons of illegal drugs were brought through the tunnel before it was found.

There's no ways to tell how long this tunnel was in operation. Ropes are still all around. These were probably used to actually carry the bales of marijuana by the people who were bringing the drugs into the United States.

And gradually, as the tunnel rises up toward the exit point in San Diego, they've actually poured concrete here to build steps to make it easier for people to walk on.

How would the drug operation work? Do you know?

CONSUEDO: Well, we think it would be kind of like a series of ants. There would be a number of people that would be starting in Mexico, either carrying boxes or bundles across, or maybe backpacks, making their way all the way across the tunnel to this side. Probably depositing them at the entrance and then backtracking again.

COOPER: Does a cartel, or whomever it is that built this tunnel, would they specialize just in marijuana or do most of them -- are they pretty diverse in terms of the drugs they try to move?

CONSUEDO: No. My guess is that they would probably be a poly- narcotic organization. They would be moving cocaine, marijuana. It just so happens, that when we got in here, we found a load of marijuana.

From the Department of Homeland Security prospective, I mean, we're looking at this as a vulnerability to our nation's security. So whether it was drugs or aliens or who knows what else, you know, tunnels are of paramount importance.

COOPER: ICE has put out a warning to anyone who took part in the tunnel construction, informing them that their lives may now be in danger.

CONSUEDO: What we've seen in the past is, with some of these very sophisticated tunnels, we've received information that the people that were actually involved in the construction of the tunnel, or may have worked in the tunnel carrying narcotics, were later killed by cartel members.

So this is really a warning to anybody that was involved in the construction to come in and talk to us.

COOPER: In Mexico, the entrance to the tunnel drops about 90 feet. But here, on the San Diego side, the exit is just below the surface of the ground.

You would emerge from the tunnel and you're in an industrial warehouse in San Diego.

CONSUEDO: This is the exit. It's not really elaborate but it gets the job done. It's certainly more sophisticated down below.

COOPER: For me, what makes it so surreal is then you come out of the tunnel and you're in this industrial warehouse in San Diego.

CONSUEDO: Right. I mean, you're in a warehouse that really you would see in any industrial park anywhere. It's pretty nondescript once you're in it.

COOPER: And there's a sign outside that says V&F Distributors. What -- who are they? CONSUEDO: Well, that's something that we're still looking at. You know, the people that -- we're interviewing the owner of the warehouse. We're talking to people that may have leased the warehouse or have a history with the warehouse. That is a legitimate company. It's registered. And that's one of the things that we're running down right now.

COOPER: Days after the tunnel was found, the investigation swept up its first suspect. His name is Carlos Cardanos Caldillo (ph), a Mexican. He was arrested and arraigned in federal court in San Diego, charged with conspiracy to smuggle drugs.

More now on the investigation and the conspiracy and the tunnel itself with Mike Consueda, special agent in charge of ICE, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in San Diego, we saw just a moment ago.

First of all, congratulations on finding this tunnel. You guys have done an amazing job on this.

CONSUEDO: Thank you.

COOPER: How significant is this arrest?

CONSUEDO: The arrest is significant for us. We're hoping that it has a real snowball effect in terms of other people coming forward, other arrests and investigative leads that we're pursuing right now.

COOPER: It's amazing how many tunnels you have found. We actually standing on another, a little gopher tunnel, that was found about two weeks ago by this taskforce that you guys set up. What's the taskforce?

CONSUEDO: We have a tunnel taskforce here in San Diego that's specifically looking at the issue of tunnels because we've had so many of them. And the taskforce is made up of ICE agents, DEA agents and border patrol agents all working collaboratively, and, of course, with our counterparts in Tijuana as well.

COOPER: There will be some who say, well, can't you just put like ground radar and see if they're digging a tunnel?

CONSUEDO: Well, you know, I don't think the technology is where it needs to be yet. We are using some technology to assist us. But it's still in development. I think it still has a ways to go before it really pinpoints tunnels for us.

COOPER: And do you have any idea how many drugs were brought through that tunnel?

CONSUEDO: That's the million dollar question. Obviously, we seized a couple of hundred pounds of marijuana in the U.S. and two tons in Mexico. What'll be key for us is determining how long that exit point has been in the United States.

COOPER: Well, it's amazing that you guy found this tunnel. And just -- I mean, just the length of it, everything. It's extraordinary going down in there.

CONSUEDO: Yes. Not only is it huge, but it's sophisticated and it's the largest tunnel we've ever seen on the southwest border. And, of course, it's a vulnerability for the security of our nation. So for DHS it's a very important find.

COOPER: From underneath the border to the underworld above it, the sickening sex trade in Tijuana, how American predators enter the city looking for and finding Mexican children.

MARIE SABABA (ph), HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST: They have no place to go so they roam the streets. They do survival sex.

COOPER: And later, it's not just drugs that the cartels are smuggling into the U.S. We'll show you the dark and horrifying world of human trafficking when "Battle of the Border" continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back to "CNN PRESENTS: Battle on the Border."

The border, where I'm standing right now, serves as a gateway for billions of dollars in trade and commerce, most of it legal. But as you're about to see, it also is a weigh point for illegal drugs into this country...



THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... federal authorities say Mexico is predominately a source country, where human beings are found, bought and sold by traffickers.

According to CIA estimates, nearly 18,000 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year, a third are from Latin America. And know one knows how many are minors.

SABABA: They're ranged from ages 14 to 18. They may be younger. They've got a lot of make-up on. They're being surveiled (ph) by their pimps.

GUTIERREZ: Marie Sababa (ph) is a human rights activist who works with other groups to protect the most vulnerable, street children who work in the sex trade.

SABABA: They have no place to go so they roam the streets. They do survival sex. They do other things that I don't want to mention because they don't do them because they're bad, but because it's a need.

GUTIERREZ: The main thing children need is a place where they can feel safe.

HOYHADE HIBOYA (ph), DIRECTOR, CHILDREN'S SHELTER: This is a living area. We have three sleeping area.

GUTIERREZ: We were granted rare access to this government run shelter in Tijuana, where sexually exploited boys are counseled, educated and given a second chance at childhood. Hoyhade Hiboya (ph) is the director.

HIBOYA: They're most of them thankful, because we have the problem of the three children's here.

GUTIERREZ: It was here at this shelter where I first met the boy with the voice, who sings songs that only have meaning to him. We'll call him Tamas (ph).

TAMAS (ph) (through translator): When I sing, I forget everything. All the hurt, the rejection and the abuse. I express my feelings by singing.

GUTIERREZ: Tamas also expresses his feelings by writing. He showed me his journal. Inside, the tragic story of a mother who did not want him. And a life of abuse that led him to the street when he was only 11.

TAMAS (through translator): My mother and step-father threw me out of the house. I was crying on the street and a man came and took me home.

GUTIERREZ: Tamas ran away from a series of child molesters until, one day, he says, he met a woman with whom he thought he would be safe.

TAMAS (through translator): The woman took me home with her and fed me. Within a week, I learned it was brothel. I had no where to go so I stayed there. The woman gave me things. In exchange, I had to prostitute myself.

GUTIERREZ: Tamas says he was forced to wear make-up and dress as a girl for clients, some of whom were American men.

He said he lived this twisted existence for four years as a child prostitute, until he learned he was about to be trafficked.

TAMAS (through translator): I found out they wanted to sell me to a person. He offered to buy me but I said no.

GUTIERREZ: This time when he ran away, he managed to find his way to Hoyhade's (ph) shelter.

Sister Doris says there's no shortage of exploited children in her shelter either. She bought it and runs it with money she made in California real estate.

This was a socialite who once owned beachfront property in San Diego and 120 pairs of designer shoes.

SISTER DORIS: In here, we're going to show you the bedrooms.

GUTIERREZ: A far cry from how she lives now.

SISTER DORIS: In here we have three beds sort of crammed together as you can see.

GUTIERREZ: She has space for six kids but 16 live here.

SISTER DORIS: We actually are hoping and started praying for a center that would house as many as 80 to 100 children.

GUTIERREZ: Sister Doris says it was a calling from above that compelled her to dedicate her life to the children. From her own money, she pays tuition so that each one can go to school. For many here, it's the first time in a classroom.

She says every boy and girl here has a story of heartache and stolen innocence, stories she's heard for 10 years.

SISTER DORIS: And I cannot fathom or even understand how any man, whether it's your child or your present wife or what, that you would violate her. I cannot understand that. And it just breaks me up terribly. How horrible. How unjust.

And what it does to their lives, they're just absolutely in a shamble. And this is why we have so many that do attend -- go into prostitution for that reason. They say, "Well, I'm not worth anything."

GUTIERREZ: In the tolerant zone, child prostitutes learn the tragic lesson, that the value of their lives is ultimately measured in the desires and wallets of strangers.

COOPER: More on this horrific sex trade in a moment.

What happened when we crossed the border ourselves? What we found in just one visit.

It is just a short drive from San Diego over the Mexican border to Tijuana. The city some tourists come to because here, they say, anything goes.

Just about everywhere you go in Tijuana, you see these billboards. It's got a picture of a child's face and it says, "I'm not a tourist attraction. It's a crime to make me one. Stop child sex tourism."

It's a reminder of the PROTECT Act, an American law passed in 2003. It was just upheld last week by an appeals court. The law makes it illegal for an American citizen to travel overseas with the intent of having sex with a minor.

That means Americans traveling to Tijuana for underage prostitution can be arrested when they return to the United States. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has made more than a dozen arrests since the PROTECT Act was passed.

Despite the PROTECT Act, business of the Zona Rosa, Tijuana's red light district, appears to be booming. Prostitution is still legal here in Tijuana. But the sex workers are supposed to be 18 or over. If you talk to social workers, though, and they'll tell at the Zona Rosa, it's not uncommon to find girls as young as 15, sometimes even 14, working as prostitutes.

MARISA UGORTAY (ph), DIRECTOR, BI-LATERAL SAFETY CORRIDOR COALITION: It's a big business. The law of offering the man for sex with kids is a big business. And the pedophiles pay a lot of money for little children.

COOPER: Marisa Ugortay is the director of the Bi-Lateral Safety Corridor Coalition, a non-profit focused on stopping predators from harming children.

UGORTAY: What needs to be known out there is we're going to get you. We are going to get you and we're not going to stop.

COOPER: The problem of child trafficking extends well beyond Tijuana. Sex tourists often travel to eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. And they're not easy to catch or to spot.

Authorities point to Richard Schmidt as an example. A 61-year- old unassuming middle-class man, Schmidt was convicted of traveling to Cambodia and molesting a 13-year-old boy.

In Tijuana, right now, the Safety Corridor Coalition estimates there are at least 8000 under-age prostitutes. The problem hasn't gone away. The problem is hiding in plain sight.

We'll have more on this horrific sex trade in a moment.

And later, some call them vigilante's. They call themselves the Minutemen.

UNIDENTIFIED WHITE MALE: If they see us here, they've got to go somewhere else. They can't cross while we're here.

COOPER: Americans guarding the border with Mexico. You'll meet them when "Battle on the Border" continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back to "CNN PRESENTS: Battle on the Border."

Well, the idea that men and women can buy and sell boys and girls is bad enough. The fact that it is going on as we speak, just down the road a few miles from here, is something else yet again.

You know it happens. Bad things do, but to see it up close, as we did, is very different.

GUTIERREZ: It is a hidden crime.

UNIDENTIFIED MEXICAN FEMALE (through translator): Yes, I believe we were slaves.

GUTIERREZ: From secret residential brothels in the city. UNIDENTIFIED MEXICAN FEMALE (through translator): They wouldn't let us leave or go anywhere.

GUTIERREZ: To brothels in the agricultural fields.

RICK CASTRO (ph), SHERIFF'S DEPUTY: Most of these women, they're here against their will.

GUTIERREZ: Women are being bought and sold.

HEIDI RUMMELL (ph), ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, LOS ANGELES: It's a very lucrative prominence where people are willing to exploit other human beings.

GUTIERREZ: It's called human trafficking. And only guns and drugs generate more money for organized crime.

Meet Alex.

ALEX (through translator): The woman who brought me here told me I would work in a restaurant and I would pay her off with my labor.

GUTIERREZ: In stead, Alex was forced to pay off her debts with her body. We can't show you her face because she's a federal witness in the case against her captors.

ALEX (through translator): We were thinking, my God, we're all going to die here.

GUTIERREZ: Alex was smuggled from Mexico, through the desert, to a house here in Los Angeles, where her dreams were shattered.

ALEX (through translator): They didn't tell me what was going to happen. They just told me you're going to go with this man.

GUTIERREZ: It was a frightening realization. The restaurant job was a farce. Alex and a dozen others, including two 14-year-old girls, were forced to work as prostitutes.

ALEX (through translator): We were working 24 hours. It didn't matter if you were sleeping. They would get us up. If we were hungry and there was nothing to eat, all that mattered was their money.

RICK CASTRO (ph), SHERIFF'S DEPUTY : Those are the drop-off sites.

MARCUS ROMERIZ (ph), SERGEANT: Coming in this way?

GUTIERREZ: Sheriff's Deputy Rick Castro leads a small strike force against human traffickers.

CASTRO: 10-4. We'll be sending up the crew.

GUTIERREZ: We followed the team as they conduct on-going surveillance of an agricultural field in the suburbs of San Diego.

CASTRO: They've got more activity out there.

GUTIERREZ: Deputy Castro and Sergeant Marcus Romeriz (ph) told me it's common for traffickers to set up brothels for migrant workers.

CASTRO: Only the customers will be coming in.

GUTIERREZ: Here we watch from the top of a mountain ridge.

CASTRO: The girls will generally bring in pieces of carpet.

GUTIERREZ: On this night, our camera catches several people running into the field.

CASTRO: These kinds of operations are pretty common.

GUTIERREZ: Deputy Castro is an expert in trafficking. He says in the past four years, he's noticed some marked increase in traffic victims. And they're not easy to identify.

CASTRO: Unfortunately, when I first started interviewing some of these victims, I didn't know what human trafficking was. I left a lot of victims. When I think back, I let a lot of victim's go.

GUTIERREZ: It is a transient operation where women are brought to the fields. They disappear into a grove of trees. This is where business is conductedm through the bush and on the ground.

ROMERIZ: They're out there in this bush doing it because they have to.

GUTIERREZ: And if they don't want to or if they try to run away?

ROMERIZ: Well, they'll be dealt with really by the persons who are basically the one's that we're after.

GUTIERREZ: Castro says punishment for running away is brutal.

CASTRO: These girls will get rapped violently. They'll get sodomized, beaten very badly. And in once case specially, I remember that the female was beaten with a clothes hanger for about two hours. And just by witnessing this torture for two hours, those girls will have that lasting impression for the rest of their lives. And they will never ever go against that trafficker.

HEIDI RUMMELL (ph), ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, LOS ANGELES: The youngest girl at this house is 14 years old.

GUTIERREZ: Heidi Rummell is an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.

RUMMELL: In October, she had 80 clients; in November, 91; December, 97.

GUTIERREZ: She shows us the journal of a young victim who was forced to prostitute herself here in a house without windows.

(on camera): Why do you think it was important to keep these journals?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because the defendant promised them that when they left he would pay them for the clients they had serviced. They didn't receive money when they were working here.

ANNOUNCER (voice-over): Because for over four months the girl was forced to have sex with 274 clients. Her trafficker, Sammy Chung, is now serving 12 1/2 years in federal prison. From Texas to New Jersey to California, international trafficking rings have been busted across the country. As of last February the Justice Department has more than 200 open trafficking investigations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I would imagine my dreams escaping like water through my hands.

ANNOUNCER: Because Alex is convinced that many of the clients knew that she and the others were being forced to sell themselves but didn't care.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): To the men I have so little to say. I hope they take a step back and think especially if they have children or daughters. I don't think they would like to see their daughters in those places.

ANNOUNCER: Because for her traffickers Alex was a reusable commodity who could be used over and over again like the women we see here running across the field on a degrading journey that may have no end.

COOPER: Just ahead a different kind of desperation. Men and women desperate for a better life and the human smugglers who prey on them.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How much do they charge now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): One thousand, five hundred dollars.

COOPER: Plus, more of the secrets from down below. We'll get back onto the border when "Battle on the Border" continues.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Randi Kaye with a look at what's happening right now. We begin with breaking news out of California. More than 100 prisoners are injured and one is dead after a riot at a correctional facility outside Los Angeles. The L.A. County Fire Department says 4,000 inmates were involved in major riot but the situation is now under control. A crew is on the way to that prison and we'll bring you the latest as soon as we have it.

Another breaking news story, the suspect in an attack inside a gay bar in New Bedford, Massachusetts, is hospitalized in critical condition. The Arkansas State Police say Jacob Robida shot and killed a police officer during a traffic stop and shot and killed a woman in the car with him. Robida was later wounded in a shootout with police. Stay with CNN for the very latest. You'll hear from man in Massachusetts who Robida allegedly attacked with a hatchet. That's coming up at 10:00 p.m. on CNN SATURDAY NIGHT.

More than 25,000 people have gathered in Atlanta to pay tribute to Coretta Scott King, the widow of the late Martin Luther King Jr. lying in honor in the state capitol in Georgia. The first woman and first black person to do so.

Betty Friedan, credited with igniting the women's rights movement has died. Friedan is best known for her 1963 book, "The Feminine Mystique." She co-founded the National Organization for Women back in 1966. Friedan died of congestive heart failure at her home in Washington, DC today was her 85th birthday.

Coming up at the top of the hour, LARRY KING. Dominick Dunne. Don't miss Larry's interview with the best selling author and celebrated "Vanity Fair" columnist. That's LARRY KING LIVE, just 30 minutes from now only here on CNN. Now back to CNN PRESENTS, "Battle on the Border." Anderson Cooper takes you inside the most elaborate smuggling tunnel after found. And I'll see you at 10:00 p.m. Eastern with the latest up to the minute news on CNN SATURDAY NIGHT. I'm Randi Kaye.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Welcome back to CNN PRESENTS: "Battle on the Border." Well, on either side north and south the California-Mexico border is magnet for those that crave what's beyond it. Immigration officials say that don't think people were smuggled in the tunnel discovered near here, but they can't be for absolutely sure.

What is certain is the business of smuggling humans into the U.S. across this very border is thriving. CNN's Rick Sanchez investigates.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Far from America's big cities in the heart of border towns like Tijuana, Mexico, there are tens of thousands m people wanting and trying to get into the U.S. People like Ramon who prefers that we don't use his last name. The man friend calls "Money" lives just two blocks from where the money is. The U.S. border.

(on camera): You can't find enough money here? (In Spanish)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Para mi? No.

SANCHEZ: I am literally walking on the yellow line that separates the United States, San Isidro, California, on this side from Tijuana, Mexico, on this side. There are an estimated 700,000 undocumented immigrants that enter into the United States each year. This is one of their points of entry.

(voice-over): It's a point of entry that Ramon sees as an opportunity. His wife and four children live 17 hours away by car. That's why he chooses to live here alone so he can more easily sneak into the U.S. (on camera): How often do you go in?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (In Spanish)

SANCHEZ: Three times you have tried to get in.

(voice-over): All three attempts have resulted with his being caught and sent back across the border.

(on camera): You're going to go again?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (In Spanish)

SANCHEZ: Why?

(voice-over): He answers that if he doesn't keep crossing, he wouldn't be able to take care of his family.

(on camera): What do you say to Americans who are -- who criticize people like you who say you are breaking the law.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (In Spanish)

SANCHEZ (voice-over): The gringos, as he says, are not willing to do the work. And he adds that as long as there is work, there will be reason for him and others to cross over. The resistance meanwhile on the other side of the border has been stepped up. So also up is the money smugglers are charging to quote "guide" people across.

(voice-over): About 15 years ago the going rate was $200. And $250 if you want to go above Los Angeles.

(on camera): How much do they charge now? $1,500.

(voice-over): The man in the silhouette that doesn't want you to see what he looks like helps people across the border. He compares the people smuggling business to the narcotics trade.

(on camera): So it's like a drug deal?

A chain.

(voice-over): A chain he explains because smugglers or "coyotes" as they are called pass off the immigrants at different steps along the way.

(on camera): How do they avoid being detected or arrested? The answer, he explains, has to do with corruption. You pay the Mexican police. Paid monthly, he says, to look the other way. If Mexican authorities are profiting, so are smugglers that know there will always be plenty of people like Ramon that want to reach the other side.

COOPER: Coming up, take a trip inside the world of drug smuggling. More on the tunnel across the Mexican border, a half mile link between cartels and dealers. Also, the minutemen who patrol the borders that they say they are just protecting the country. But are they taking the law into their own hands? That and more when "Battle on the Border" continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER (voice-over): Welcome back to CNN PRESENTS, "Battle on the Border."

(on camera): We're coming to you from California's border with Mexico. A border that was busted wide open by a sophisticated 2400 foot tunnel dug very close to the spot where I am right now. Federal authorities say the tunnel which spans from San Diego to Tijuana is the longest they have ever found and inside was more than two tons of marijuana.

Earlier I showed you part of this one secret passageway. Here now is more.

The exit to the tunnel isn't much to speak of. It's basically a three by three foot hole knocked in the floor of this industrial warehouse south of San Diego. There's a concrete piece of tiling was removed and they found the tunnel here. When you go down the ladder you enter another world.

So this is the tunnel. It is 2,400 feet all of the way through to mexico. It's the size about eight football fields in length. Seven of the football fields are underneath U.S. territory. One football field is in Tijuana. It goes from this warehouse here all of the way to a warehouse in Mexico.

The tunnel immediately starts to slope down from ground level and goes down about 60 feet. If you look down at the ground here, this is all concrete. The walls down here is a soft rock. They don't know how this tunnel was dug. But you can tell some sort of a drill was used. You can see the markings here on the side of the wall.

They also don't know how long it took to actually carve out this tunnel but they found out about this operation about two years ago and there's know doubt it took years to dig a tunnel like this.

As you walk deeper down into the tunnel it really slopes down and gets to about 60 feet deep here on the Mexican side and 90 feet down, 90 feet deep. They have actually poured concrete here and formed steps which makes it easier for whoever was bringing drugs into the united states to climb up through the tunnel. It's a really sophisticated tunnel though. There are also electrical cables running all through the length of it if you look here there's a light bulb.

These are light bulbs that U.S. authorities put in. They removed the original ones to fingerprint them all. But there are light bulbs all throughout the tunnel. Those were put in by the cartel or whoever built the tunnel. There's also some support beams every now and then to try to make sure the wall and ceilings don't collapse. Throughout the tunnel you can still find the ropes. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents believe the ropes are used to help carry the bales of marijuana that they found and a worker would wrap it around a bale and put it on their back like this or somehow use it to just carry it.

But the ropes are spaced out all throughout the tunnel. Also there's this which is actually just another sign of how sophisticated this tunnel is. This is a pipe used to pump in fresh air and the pump goes all of the way over to Mexico. This would be used to pump in fresh oxygen.

On the U.S. side this is about the deepest part of the tunnel. It's probably an estimated 60 feet deep. And as you can see, it starts to get slippery here. There's a lot of water, a lot of condensation on the ground. It is actually coming from the ceiling. Water has become a real problem for federal authorities. They've actually installed these pumps to try to get the water out.

This is an intersection in the tunnel. And they're not quite sure exactly what happened here. That way is Mexico. And as far as the eye can see if you look down, the tunnel goes straight ahead. But it also goes for a couple dozen feet over in this direction. They're not sure if the people that were tunneling, the smugglers made a mistake and tunneled off the wrong direction and had to backtrack the tunnel this way or if they were trying to find a different warehouse or had a different warehouse in mind. At this point they simply don't know at this point.

They're hoping to bring some miners in here who can examine the way the tunnel was made and that might give some clues about what the smugglers were thinking and also when this tunnel was built.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have issued a warning to anyone involved in the construction of this tunnel or the operation of the tunnel itself. They are warning them that their lives could be in danger. In past tunnels they discovered the cartel has tried to kill the people that built the tunnels so that information about the construction and who built it doesn't leak out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Law enforcement discovered this particular hole in the border but it's not the only one. Coming up, the weak spots above ground and the American civilians patrolling them. Volunteers or vigilantes? That's the question.

Also, the millions of illegals that manage to get into the U.S. Their contribution to the economy and their cost to society. Both running into the billions. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back to CNN PRESENTS: Battle on the Border. The California-Mexico border, not far from where I'm standing, is just one stretch that needs protecting. The borders separating the U.S. from Mexico and Canada are thousands of miles long. Not everyone patrolling those borders is paid to do so. Some are taking matters into their own hands. They don't call themselves vigilantes but others do. CNN's Gary Tuchman went on patrol with them recently and this is what he found. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They call themselves the Minutemen. A civilian border watch group, whose members believe they serve their country by keeping illegal immigrants out of the country.

CARL BRAUN, MINUTEMAN PROJECT: So if they see us here, they've got to go somewhere else. They can't cross while we're here.

TUCHMAN (on camera): Along a remote portion of the Mexican border, about 70 miles east of San Diego, there is a fence that completely disappears. It's a place where many people illegally cross into the United States. But the co-founder of the Minuteman Project says its members find them crossing everywhere.

JIM GILCHRIST, CO-FOUNDER, MINUTEMAN PROJECT: Along all 1,961 miles of the border.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): But it's clearly easier in the great majority of the border that is unsecured.

(On camera): This is a well-known crossing point for Mexicans trying to get into the United States. Right now I'm standing in Mexico. And it's a popular site, despite the fact that there's a fence. And as you can see, this fence is not much of a challenge. Right now, I'm in California.

The Minutemen stand on the U.S. side of the fence with their binoculars, looking for sights or sounds of Mexicans.

(Voice-over): They say when they see them, the Minutemen will not take matters in their own hands. Instead, they'll call the U.S. Border Patrol, which makes its rounds at the border while we're there. The Minutemen say they have good relationships with most of the Border Patrol agents.

BRAUN: We're basically a pretty large neighborhood watch.

TUCHMAN: This is video shot by the Minutemen themselves, of Mexicans they've spotted. The Minutemen claim after less than a year in existence, they've reported some 2,000 illegal immigrants to the Border Patrol in four states next to Mexico and 10 next to Canada. It's co-founder ran for Congress on an immigration platform. He lost, but got 25 percent of the vote.

GILCHRIST: My founding fathers did not envision us taking care of the entire world. And that's not to mean that we can't take care of other nations by showing them how to build their own American dream in Mexico and in Guatemala.

TUCHMAN: Some in the group carry weapons with them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Defensive protection.

TUCHMAN: We climb with the Minutemen on a night mission. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of these rocks move, so just be careful when you step on them.

TUCHMAN: We're going to an overlook, but are told to beware of what could be under the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These holes in the ground -- these are rattlesnake holes.

TUCHMAN: We come to a cave just on the U.S. side of the border, where the Minutemen say illegal immigrants sometimes hide. Not tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are night vision monocles.

TUCHMAN: There are also no sightings from the cliff we stand on. But the Minutemen say the January weather dissuades many from making the crossing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it will be down probably around 20 degrees here tonight.

TUCHMAN: But they also believe their presence keeps people from crossing. The Minutemen say they are not the paranoid racist people that many critics charge.

GILCHRIST: Paranoid and racist? That sounds like the red brick of either an anarchist or criminal mentality.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: So just how big are the holes in our border just south of us. According to a new study, they are plenty big. CNN's Tom Foreman investigates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOME FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Across land, over fences, through rivers, six million Mexican citizens have illegally crossed the border to live in the United States. That from a study by the Pew Hispanic center which says another 2.5 million Latinos from other countries are also here illegally. Most commonly because they want better pay than they can get at home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not a crime looking for work and supporting their families.

FOREMAN: Latino workers here illegally are undeniably a big part of the low wage economy. Many believe the U.S. economic landscape is being radically altered.

DAN STEIN, FEDERATION FOR AMERICAN IMMIGRATION REFORM:Yes. We're importing a poverty class of immigrants.

Dan Stein with the Federation for American Immigration Reform argues inexpensive illegal foreign labor may be great for business owners but not for their blue collar employees who lose wage bargaining power with each body that slips over the border.

STEIN: Americans today want to understand where are we going with immigration? trying to build a community of a billion people where we have no middle class and some people at the rich top and poor people at the bottom. That is exactly where we're headed.

FOREMAN: Immigration rights activists don't buy it. They argue of all of the Latinos in the United States, including those here legally, on temporary visas or from long time Latino American families, most are in their 20s, ambitious young workers who are invigorating the economy. So those activists want to talk about letting those here illegally earn citizenship and about more temporary work visas for others who want to come.

CECILIA MUNOZ, LA RAZA: The question is whether we can do better than we're doing now and the answer to that is yes, absolutely.

FOREMAN (on camera): You believe the Latino community is as committed to that as the Anglo community?

MUNOZ: No question. No one more interested than bringing Americans together to solve this problem than we are.

FOREMAN (voice-over): It's a concern growing only more urgent for all. The Pew Center report estimates undocumented foreign workers now hold five percent of U.S. jobs and climbing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Thanks very much for watching "Battle on the Border." From the U.S./Mexican border, I'm Anderson Cooper.

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