Overdose Death Leads Authorities to Basement Housing 13 Migrants, Mostly Children

An overdose death in northwest Indiana led authorities to a Hammond apartment building basement in which 13 illegal aliens — most of them children — were reportedly living.

Officers of the Hammond Police Department were called to investigate the death of a resident in the multi-unit building. But during the investigation, officers discovered a large number of migrants were illegally living in the building’s basement, WGN-TV reported.

When officers entered the cramped, messy room, they found 13 illegals from Venezuela — including nine children ranging in age from two months to 14 years, and two women and two men — living in the space.

Officials also noted that the living quarters presented a number of code violations, including overloaded extension cords, fire hazards, inadequate exits, not enough windows, and other issues, the police said.

The illegals were given ten days to leave the premises and the basement was labeled an uninhabitable space.

“This type of illegal basement apartment places people at extreme risk and danger, with owners often preying on marginalized people and those without means to find other adequate housing,” said Hammond Department of Inspections chief Kelly Kearney.

Neighbors told the media that they had no idea that so many people were living illegally in the building as they never saw any of them outside the home.

Further investigation revealed that a local member of the clergy had arranged the illegal living quarters for the migrants. The clergy member was not identified publicly and he has not been charged with anything at present.

Still, Hammond Mayor Thomas M. McDermott Jr. insisted that he would seek to hold the clergy member accountable for stashing the illegals in the building’s basement.

“The City of Hammond is not open to this type of illegal criminal activity and [they have] placed people in significant harm, including children,” McDermott exclaimed.

It has not yet been reported what the migrants will do, where they will go, and if the city will be on the hook to care for them.

Hammond, Indiana, is far from the only city where large numbers of illegals have been found crammed into small spaces in squalid living conditions.

In March, New York City building inspectors discovered an illegal flop house for migrants in which some 70 of them were living in the cramped basement of a Queens furniture store.

An investigation determined that the building’s owner, a man named Ebou Sarr, himself an immigrant, was charging the illegals $300 a month to live in the flop house.

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