Human Stash House Containing 147 Illegal Immigrants Busted in South Texas

A human stash house containing 147 suspected illegal immigrants was busted in Alton, Texas, near the U.S./Mexico border. 

Daniel Tirado, a spokesman for the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector, told The McAllen Monitor that the immigrants were residents of various South American countries. They were apprehended and are currently being “processed for removal.”

The bust occurred shortly after over 80 illegal immigrants were reportedly discovered in the woods of McAllen, Texas. As Breitbart Texas reported recently, the group was staying in a “makeshift encampment” near a closed-down tennis club.

Many of the illegals were sleeping on cardboard in tents hidden by branches. It is still unclear how long the individuals were on the location, but some allegedly told authorities they had been there for over one week with almost no food, according to KXAN-TV.

During an interview with Breitbart Texas, Tirado said that Border Patrol often saves the lives of illegal immigrants apprehended in stash house situations. 

He said, “A lot of those individuals who are found or discovered, they are removed from the country. But they’re often actually being rescued because the stash house operators and smugglers often hold them against their will, abuse them, and rape the women.”

So far this year, multiple large-scale human stash houses have been discovered in Texas. 

As Breitbart Texas reported in March, 115 individuals were discovered inside a Houston human stash house, all being held against their will. Agents on the scene told Breitbart Texas that they saw “a sea of people, some sitting on top of each other” after entering the small  home that had just one bathroom. Windows on the house were boarded up and most of the doors had deadbolt locks. A criminal complaint stated, “A wooden paddle, a stun gun, two shotguns and several types of ammunition were found inside the residence.”

Five individuals were changed with armed conspiracy to detain and threaten foreign nationals.

Later in March, another human stash house containing 74 individuals was busted in Edinburg, according to a Breitbart Texas report. 

According to a criminal complaint obtained by Breitbart Texas, Oscar Luis-Ramos and Edgar Porras-Quiroz, both Mexican nationals, were arrested for smuggling aliens into the residence. Since March 1, an alleged 90 illegal immigrants passed through the home. 

Robert Miljenovich, a Sergeant with the Austin Police Department Human Trafficking and Vice Unit, has investigated numerous cases involving Texas-based human stash houses. He told Breitbart Texas that such cases are frequent in the state. 

“It is not uncommon for us to recover high numbers of people in one [residence]–this is not an uncommon occurrence, these stash houses are all over the place,” Miljenovich said. “We’ve gotten 20 or 30 people out of trailers before.”

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