More Than 100 People Apprehended from 2 Stash Houses
More Than 100 People Apprehended from 2 Stash Houses
Posted: Jun 06, 2016 6:23 PM PDT
Updated: Jun 06, 2016 6:23 PM PDT
DONNA — More than 100 people who entered the country illegally are being processed by Border Patrol.
The people were found in two stash houses.
Border Patrol officials said they can’t stress enough the dangers people face when the cross the border illegally.
The most recent stash house was discovered Monday afternoon on the 1200 block of Coyote Street, north of Donna. One by one, the people were taken out of the home where they were being held. Seventy-one people were detained.
A woman said her husband’s sister lives in the house with her husband and two children. She’s still in shock.
“I’m very surprised. I had no idea this was going on. I never saw anything,” Maria Rangel said. “I don't come over here often, but when I did, I didn't see anything. I'm surprised and scared to find out about this.”
Border Patrol spokesperson Marlene Castro said they’re investigating. The Border Patrol is also checking on the health conditions of the people found inside the stash houses.
It's always a health and safety concern,” Castro said. “Were they there under duress? Were they being held against their will? Were they being fed properly? Were they being taken care of?”
Another stash house was uncovered Sunday morning on Robin Avenue in Pharr. Forty-seven people, suspected of crossing the border illegally, were detained there.
A Salvadoran woman told agents she’d been raped.
“After interviewing the subjects, one woman actually came forward and said that she was raped by the two smugglers that were taking care of the home,” Castro said. “They actually recorded the incident on an iPad.”
The footage on the iPad is being used as evidence in the investigation, Castro said.
Castro said human smugglers can’t be trusted.
Border Patrol officials urge the community to get involved and speak out if they suspect this kind of activity is happening in their neighborhood.
“If you think about it there's this woman, there's 45 other people in there, and none of them tried to help her while she was being raped,” Castro said. “Again, we try to encourage the community to come forward. If you see any suspicious activity, report it. You could save a life.”
Agent Castro said the community is encouraged to call 911 or the Border Patrol. People can leave an anonymous tip.
http://www.krgv.com/story/32158659/m...2-stash-houses
Media Focuses Illegal Immigrant Children Numbers, Forgets Horror Stories at Hands of
Media Focuses Illegal Immigrant Children Numbers, Forgets Horror Stories at Hands of Cartel Smugglers
by ILDEFONSO ORTIZ
7 Jun 2016
PHARR, Texas — Dozens of police officers surrounded a small home in this border city as they followed up information that there were dozens of illegal immigrants inside.
When officers with Pharr Police and agents with U.S. Border Patrol went in they arrested 47 illegal immigrants including three women in what has become an all too common story in this border region.
However, according to information released to Breitbart Texas by Pharr Police, one of the women opened up to authorities about how she was raped by at least two human smugglers who recorded the rape on a tablet. The human smugglers were not at the house at the time the raid.
Stash houses, with dozens of illegal aliens who are often abused or held for ransom, show the human side of a topic that is largely reported with numbers only. The most recent figures released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed that from October to April from this fiscal year, authorities have made 223,869 apprehensions. According to the current models, the figure is likely to surpass the 331,333 apprehensions from the entire 2015 fiscal year. The large majority of them being made in the Rio Grande Valley Sector in South Texas.
Of those apprehensions from October to April 2016, 32,952 have been unaccompanied minors up to 17-years-of-age. The figure revealed a massive increase in the apprehensions of minors in the past seven months. The number of unaccompanied minors is almost as high as the entire 2015 number of 39,970 apprehensions. The large majority of the apprehensions are being made in the Rio Grande Valley Sector.
Various news outlets that have been covering border issues have focused their resources on statistics — primarily on the number of children and families that come over the border. They have largely ignored the individual horror stories carried out by cartel controlled human smugglers.
The Texas Tribune has written a large number of stories focusing on the immigration and border debate while taking a left-of-center approach. The publication focused on civil rights groups, court cases, and other issues, but has largely ignored border crime and the atrocities committed by human smugglers. When the Texas Tribune did cover crime, they based their story on an outdated metric that the FBI has tried to phase out. In their articles, the Texas Tribune has not covered this week’s rape at the human stash house or the various cases where human smugglers have abandoned toddlers and juveniles in remote areas.
KGBT, a TV station owned by the Sinclair group, that in the past has shown a left-of-center view on immigration stories, did not cover the raid at the human stash house nor the fact that the woman was sexually assaulted by human smugglers as of Tuesday afternoon. KGBT also known as Valley Central, is the same station that in February 2015 used the words “Disturbance” and “Demonstration” to refer to a riot where more than 2,000 federal inmates, most held on immigration charges, set fire and vandalized a detention center in Willacy County. Authorities were forced to relocate the prison population after the “disturbance” left enough damage that the facility had to be shut down.
The Monitor, in McAllen, has also taken a left-of-center editorial line. This is primarily seen in their multiple editorials and their approach to the rise of unaccompanied minors and family units. As of Tuesday afternoon, the newspaper had not reported on the human stash house where the human smugglers raped the woman and recorded her ordeal.
On the other hand, KRGV a local TV station that has been consistently reporting on the immigration crisis, also reported on the stash house raid as well as the rape of the woman.
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/...tel-smugglers/
