Border agents seize 44 Central American aliens from stash house in Texas
Border agents seize 44 Central American aliens from stash house in Texas
By ANNA GIARITELLI (@ANNA_GIARITELLI)•
1/6/17 7:25 PM
Federal law enforcement agents seized 44 illegal immigrants hiding out in a stash house in Donna, Texas, this week, Customs and Border Protection said Friday.
Border Patrol agents from the Laredo Sector and Rio Grande Valley Sector received a tip that the house was being used to hold illegal aliens. After obtaining a search warrant, law enforcement and agents found dozens of people originally from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
"The callous disregard for human life in which these persons were subjected to and the inhumane conditions that they were placed in demonstrates how heartless these smugglers can be," Laredo Sector Chief Patrol Agent Mario Martinez said in a statement.
"In this case, 44 illegal immigrants were spared from being held in a crammed stash house and a smuggler was apprehended," said Rio Grande Valley Sector Acting Chief Patrol Agent Raul Ortiz.Subscribe today to get intelligence and analysis on defense and national security issues in your Inbox each weekday morning from veteran journalists Jamie McIntyre and Jacqueline Klimas.
The smuggler was identified as a Mexican national and will be prosecuted. The group of aliens was taken to the Weslaco Border Patrol station for processing.
Donna is a town of 15,000 people and is located in the Rio Grande Valley, which has seen the highest levels of illegal immigration in recent years. Of the 54,000 apprehensions in fiscal 2016 by nine border sector branches, more than 33,000 were made in the Rio Grande.
All of the stash houses Border Patrol agents uncovered were in the Rio Grande Valley in fiscal 2016, which ended in September. More than 150 people were taken into federal custody and processed back to their home countries.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/bo...rticle/2611147
