U.S. Border Patrol agents found more than 140 illegal immigrants stashed in raids of two separate smuggling stash houses in Texas on Sunday.
A tip-off led Ysleta Border Patrol Station agents to the first group during the early hours of Sunday near North Loop Drive and North Zaragoza Road in El Paso.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a statement that when agents arrived, they located 51 illegal immigrants inside the residence.
The illegal immigrants were from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Authorities said they were found to be in good health. Two of them, Mexican nationals, were identified by agents as the caretakers of the residence. Both will be facing federal charges for the smuggling scheme.
The second group was found around noon when Ysleta agents, along with the Texas DPS, encountered 94 smuggled migrants inside a second stash house. Interviews conducted at the first stash house led agents to the second property near North Loop Drive and North Carolina Drive in El Paso, Texas.
When agents arrived at the second location, they encountered 94 illegal immigrants from Guatemala, Mexico, and Ecuador. Despite being housed in deplorable conditions, all the illegal immigrants were found to be in good health, according to authorities.
“A search of the home resulted in a total of 95 migrants, 74 males and 19 females, including 2 minors,” Texas DPS spokesman Lt. Christopher Olivarez said in a statement.
They were all processed under Title 42 or Title 8 authority, which governs U.S. immigration law.
“Stash house busts!” wrote U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Border Patrol for El Paso Sector on Facebook.
El Paso Sector CBP agents have uncovered over 130 stash houses in the region with over 1,800 illegal immigrants in the 2023 fiscal year to date, authorities noted.
“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,” said Anthony “Scott” Good, El Paso Sector chief patrol agent.
In outcry over the handling of the illegal immigration crisis at the U.S. southern border, House Republicans have called for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas not to be paid.
Citing Mayorkas’s alleged failure to secure the U.S. border, a key responsibility of his job, 11 GOP representatives sent a letter to House Appropriations Committee Chair Kay Granger (R-Texas) and House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security Chair Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), requesting that not a penny be appropriated to pay Mayorkas (pdf).
The March 29 letter argued that Mayorkas should not be paid because he has not done his job and is not serving and protecting the American people.
“As you begin drafting the Homeland Security Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2024, we request that you decrease Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas’ salary to $0 for willfully ignoring his oath to enforce our border security and immigration laws,” the letter states.
The letter goes on to state that the secretary of Homeland Security is responsible for safeguarding the nation’s borders from unauthorized entries and individuals who pose a threat to public safety and national security.
“In addition, the Secretary is required to maintain operational control and prevent narcotics and other contraband from entering the country,” it continues. “Secretary Mayorkas is actively failing to attain and maintain control of the southern border by weakening our security apparatus and implementing policies attracting record-breaking numbers of illegal migrants and bad actors seeking to be released into the United States.”
The letter was signed by Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.), Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Bob Good (R-Va.), Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), and Scott Perry (R-Pa.).
Republicans are also seeking to impeach Mayorkas, who they hold responsible for the record-high illegal immigration crisis and the influx of drugs into the country during the Biden presidency.
Ross Muscato contributed to this report.