Thread: Immigration agents take 18 people into custody after finding 3-bedroom house converte

Immigration agents take 18 people into custody after finding 3-bedroom house converted into mini-apartment complex

Friday, June 15, 2012

Around 12 people were taken into custody Thursday morning when local and federal agents raided a home on Port Arthur's Lamplighter Lane. The three-bedroom home was converted into dormitory style living and housed around 20 people who worked at a nearby restaurant. The residents were taken to the Immigration offices in Beaumont. Port Arthur Police said the raid stemmed from neighbor's complaints about large numbers of people entering and exiting the home. Port Arthur Police said the dorm-style remodeling produced substandard plumbing and electrical wiring. No arrests were made in the incident.


From the outside, the brick home on Lamplighter Lane looked like many of the others on the short Port Arthur street.

But inside the 2,000-square-foot home, the three bedrooms as well as the garage had been converted into makeshift apartments - home for 19 people believed to be illegal immigrants from China and Mexico who were taken into custody by federal agents Thursday morning.

"You could tell several people lived there," said neighbor Hadrian Smith. "In the past few months you'd see them walking up and down the street."

Ed Maxwell, who has lived next door to the home for 10 years, said he even threatened to call police because of trash in the yard and the residents constantly walking through his property.

The increased activity at and around the home located off FM 365 tipped Smith and Maxwell off that something wasn't right.

When city building inspectors and Port Arthur police showed up Thursday, they found the home had been turned into 18 sleeping quarters - most measuring about 8 feet by 10 feet and some 8 feet by 8 feet - each labeled with a letter, much like an apartment complex.

Butch Hass, a senior building inspector, said residents paid to live at the house and some rooms had as many as three beds.

Read more: Immigration agents take 18 people into custody after finding 3-bedroom house converted into mini-apartment complex - Beaumont Enterprise

America's hunger for cheap food, AND cheap dining drives demand for illegally imported cheap labor?

The typical 2 bedroom apartments here now house as many as 25 single people or 3 families totaling 15 to 20. Rent is too damn high...because of illegal aliens willing to pay outrageous totals. Property owners have made fortunes because of this fraudulent demand for supply. It's only because of illegal immigrants that the population here has increased, reality is it should have decreased a little bit or been stable these past 2 decades.

The 2 bedroom apartments mentioned where 4 or 500 a month in 88, now they're 2 grand or more.

I dont beleive there were only 18 of them in a three bedroom house. I be they missed a few hiding out in cabinets, microwaves, etc.