Murder suspect found among 77 illegal immigrants in Stash House

A murder suspect has been found among 77 illegal migrants discovered at two hideout houses in El Paso, Texas, authorities said.

At one property, Border Patrol agents discovered 72 people living in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions after receiving a tip about a possible hideout house in the area, and another five were found at a second property.

U.S. Border Patrol Anti-Smuggling Units (ASU) El Paso, Homeland Security Investigations, El Paso Texas Constables and the Texas Department of Public Safety served a warrant at a property on Overland Avenue.

When officers searched the property, they found migrants in a storage shed with poor ventilation, small windows and surrounded by piles of trash, according to CBP.

Two people have been identified as managers of the illegal warehouse and are facing human smuggling charges.

Further investigation led to the discovery of a second property on Val Verde Street where five additional migrants were located. A total of 77 migrants were found from Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, all in stable condition.

According to the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) database, when authorities checked documents at the processing center, they identified that one of the arrested individuals from the Dominican Republic was wanted in her home country for murder.

All migrants encountered were processed for deportation under Title 8.

In fiscal year 2024, El Paso Sector human smuggling interdiction teams discovered over 270 hideouts and apprehended 2,663 migrants.

“The citizens of our local El Paso community are an important partnership in helping us protect our city. We encourage anyone with information to report suspicious activity to our office. One call could help our agents stop criminal smuggling and potentially save lives,” said A. Scott Good, El Paso Sector Chief Patroller.

Good also said in a post on

Ahead of the 2024 election, Republicans have used migrant crime as a line of attack against Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Newsweek the Harris campaign has reached out for comment.

Vice presidential candidate JD Vance has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims that Haitian migrants eat other people's pets, while former President Donald Trump previously claimed that migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

“Americans die every day,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said at the Republican National Convention. He claimed they were being “murdered, assaulted and raped by illegal immigrants that Democrats have released.”

However, according to a Northwestern University study, immigrants are “significantly less likely” to commit crimes than those born in the United States.

The study, led by economist Elisa Jácome, examined U.S. Census incarceration data over the 150 years from 1850 to 2020.

“Our study shows that since 1870, immigrants as a group have never been more incarcerated than those born in the United States,” Jácome said in a statement at the time.

A 2019 study by the CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank, examined Texas. It found that undocumented immigrants were 37.1% less likely to be convicted of a crime.

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