Over 140 illegal migrants were found in raids on two separate stash houses near El Paso by the Texas Department of Public Safety and Customs and Border Patrol, authorities announced.

Texas DPS special agents conducted a raid Sunday after they received a tip about a property human traffickers were using as a safehuose for people they had smuggled over the border in the Texas city, spokesman Lt. Christopher Olivarez told Fox News. 

“A search of the home resulted in a total of 95 migrants; 74 males, 19 females and two minors,” Olivarez said. “All migrants were referred to Border Patrol and the manager was charged federally with Harboring Illegal Aliens.”

In a separate operation, CBP Anti-Smuggling Units “foiled a smuggling scheme” when they found a house packed with another 51 migrants, according to CBP El Paso Sector Chief Anthony “Scott” Good.

Migrants in that stash house were from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, KRQE reported. All were found in good health.

In total, 146 migrants were apprehended in the two operations. More than 130 stash houses have been raided this fiscal year, according to Good.

“The citizens in our local El Paso community provide an important partnership to help us safeguard our city. We encourage anyone with information to report suspicious activity to our office. That one phone call could help save many lives,” Good told Fox in a statement. 

Last week, another stash house in El Paso with 23 migrants from Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala was found, officials said.

The illegal migrants caught in the stash houses are usually processed for illegally entering the country and deported, while those harbouring them are arrested and face long prison sentences.

Border Patrol have long stated that raiding stas houses is an important part of smashing smuggling rings and sends a message to the cartels that US authorities are onto them.

In a chaotic scene at the border last week, dozens of babies and small children were thrown over the river that separates the US from Mexico in El Paso, Texas, as more than 1,000 migrants rushed the border, the US Border Patrol confirmed.

The scramble across the border happened after false rumors circulated on social media that migrants would be allowed entry into the US if they surrendered themselves to immigration agents.

The border city became the busiest border crossing in the US in 2022 as it was flooded and overwhelmed with people seeing refuge, declaring a citywide state of emergency. However, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has refused to call the surge of migrants at the southern border a “crisis.” 

Gov. Greg Abbott launched the controversial Operation Lone Star in March 2021 in response to spike in illegal border crossings.

Gov. Abbott’s office said Friday that since the launch of the initiative there has been over 360,000 illegal immigrant apprehensions and more than 26,000 criminal arrests resulting in more than 24,000 felony charges. 

DPS has additionally seized huge hauls of drugs including a record amount of hyper-deadly fentanyl as part of the border mission, the governor’s office said.