Border Agents Bust a Texas Stash House As Deportations Ramp Up

Brittany M. Hughes | February 13, 2017
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Immigration officials busted a Texas stash house used to smuggle illegal aliens on Friday, ultimately arresting 11 people who had come into the United States unlawfully.

CBP reported:

On Feb. 7, Border Patrol agents, assisted by officers from Maverick County Sheriff’s Office, located a house near the downtown region of Eagle Pass that was suspected of being used to temporarily harbor smuggled immigrants. As law enforcement officials approached, a man was seen fleeing on foot. The individual was apprehended after a short chase and 10 other subjects were found within the residence.  Evidence indicated that the people inside had recently crossed the Rio Grande River. The 11 individuals were arrested and then transported to the Eagle Pass South Border Patrol Station for processing. 

CBP noted the 11 individuals included eight Mexican men, a Honduran woman and a man and a woman from El Salvador. Several of them had already been previously deported.

“The individuals, some of whom had already been removed from the country previously, will be charged with being illegally present in the United States and face deportation,” immigration officials stated.

Stash houses are a common problem, particularly in the hundreds of communities that lie near the Southwest U.S. border. Small buildings are sometimes used by smugglers to house dozens of illegal aliens at a time, including women and children who are often kept in unsanitary and often dangerous conditions.

“It is not uncommon for these undocumented immigrants to be held for weeks or more in small, cramped structures without adequate ventilation, running water, or sanitation,” CBP noted. “Organizers of stash houses have also been known to engage in kidnapping, robbery, and physical and sexual abuse of immigrants.”

Border officials are continually finding and raiding stash houses, trying to stem the tide of human smuggling that’s been allowed to run rampant across the U.S. border. Just last October, agents located and arrested 56 illegal aliens in a stash house in Mission, Texas. All of those arrested were from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras.

Then, in early January, border agents took custody of another 44 illegal aliens holed up in a stash house in Donna, Texas after receiving a tip that a local house was being used for human smuggling.

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