34 Saved in Flooded Tunnel at Border

Authorities in Nogales rescued 34 suspected illegal immigrants clinging to the sides of a flooded drainage tunnel about 5:30 a.m. and searched unsuccessfully for four who apparently were swept into the Santa Cruz River.

U.S. Border Patrol agents, Nogales police and firefighters looked for the missing along several miles of the drainage canal and the river. The searches were called off by early afternoon.

Authorities said the would-be immigrants were trying to enter the U.S. through the Grand Tunnel between Nogales, Mexico, and Nogales, Ariz., when Border Patrol agents patrolling north of downtown discovered them holding onto the drainage canal’s concrete-lined walls.