U.S. Border Patrol agents found 22 migrants living in a house in El Paso last week, Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said in a social media post.
Owens said the migrants were found on Dec. 16 in what he described as a "stash house." While the conditions were described as "poor," all the migrants were in good health. The agents responded to the location after receiving a tip about potential illegal activity there.
Owens further said that the migrants would be processed for removal, but did not give details about the house's exact location.
"Reporting suspicious activity not only keeps our communities safe but can also lead to the rescue of migrants suffering at the hands of dangerous smugglers," he said, according to Border Report.
Police often learn about these stash houses through 911 calls from neighbors who hear screams or see crowds of people through windows. Sometimes, tips come from U.S. officials contacted by the victims' families, or police find groups of migrants showing signs of violence wandering around.
In August, police in Mexico's Chihuahua City said they had rescued 1,245 migrants from criminal gangs over the past seven months. Abducted migrants are usually held in cramped stash houses, mostly in Juarez near the U.S. border with El Paso, Texas. Mexican officials said the migrants are rarely given food or water.
Chihuahua State Public Safety Director Gilberto Loya said at the time that authorities had carried out two rescues involving migrants. In one case, 10 people from Sudan and Morocco were rescued. In another, five individuals, including three men and a woman from Guatemala and Nicaragua, were found malnourished and dehydrated.
These migrants were attempting to reach the United States but fell victim to criminal gangs.
Migrant support nonprofits in the United States have previously warned that violence against asylum-seekers is rising due to stricter immigration policies in Mexico and at the U.S. Southwest border.
In July, the Hope Border Institute released a report titled "Pain as a Strategy," highlighting how actions by federal authorities in Mexico, Texas officials at the Rio Grande levee, and the Biden administration's June 4 temporary border closure for asylum-seekers without appointments are putting migrants at risk.
The report explained that once migrants arrive in Juarez, cartels often kidnap them and hold them in stash houses, seizing their belongings, including cell phones. The cartels then contact the migrants' families to demand ransoms, sometimes as high as $20,000.
According to survivors, cartels typically wait about a week before reaching out to families, increasing anxiety and pressure to pay.
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