16 Migrants Held by Smugglers for Month in Texas Motel Room near Border

Border Patrol agents find 16 migrants being held for 39 days in a motel room near the Texa
Photo: U.S. Border Patrol/Rio Grande Valley Sector

Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents found a group of migrants stashed in a motel room near the Texas-Mexico border. Human smugglers held the 16 migrants in the tiny room for nearly 30 days, officials reported.

McAllen Station Border Patrol agents received a tip on September 17 about a motel in Edinburg being used as a smuggling stash house. Agents responded to the location and observed two people entering the motel room carrying several jugs of water and groceries, according to Rio Grande Valley Sector officials.

Agents contacted the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office to conduct a welfare check. The deputies and agents found the small motel room packed with 16 migrants, officials stated.

Agents conducted interviews and identified 10 Honduran citizens, five Salvadoran nationals, and one from Mexico. The migrants told the agents they had been held by the human smugglers in the room for nearly 30 days.

The following day, McAllen Station agents found several migrants emerging from a storm drain in Hidalgo, Texas. The agents apprehended three migrants and set up surveillance on the area. An hour later, three more migrants came out of the storm drain including one unaccompanied child.

Several hours later, agents observe several other migrants emerged from the drain. Agents apprehended four more migrants from Mexico and Honduras.

Officials report that all of these migrants will be processed under CBP guidelines.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.

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