Agency attributes proliferation of “overcrowded, unsanitary” smuggling hubs to rise in number of single adults crossing the border illegally.
Some of the migrants detained inside the stash house operating inside an El Paso Lower Valley apartment. (U.S. Border Patrol)
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Federal agents have intervened in four times as many migrant “stash houses” this year in Far West Texas and Southern New Mexico as they did all last year.
The U.S. Border Patrol on Monday said its agents in the El Paso Sector are now up to 264 stash houses found during ongoing fiscal year 2021, compared to 66 in all of FY 2020. Likewise, the number of migrant apprehensions in stash house environments is up to 2,788 as of Wednesday, compared to only 487 in all of 2020.
Border Patrol officials attribute the skyrocketing number of stash houses to a general increase in illegal immigration this year.
“It seems that since we’re having so many more single adults cross, that’s why we’re seeing so many more stash houses,” Joel A. Freeland, a Border Patrol spokesman, told Border Report earlier this month.
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