Texas ‘stash houses,’ used to hide illegal immigrants, busted as border crackdown continues

Federal and local authorities this week shut down three "stash houses" in Laredo, Texas, that they say were filled with illegal immigrants brought into the U.S. by human smugglers, according to reports.

"These local gangs that we have here — it’s an extension of these Mexican cartels working through these local gangs that we have," Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz, a Democrat, told the Washington Examiner. "We’ve had a stash house surge. If we don't get to it now, it will only escalate." Homeland Security investigators and Laredo police first found six people determined to be in the country illegally inside a home in the border town on Monday afternoon, according to the Laredo Morning Times. Around an hour later, another house near the city’s downtown was found to have seven immigrants inside and authorities found 18 people inside a third house in the north part of the city. All of the immigrants had allegedly crossed the border illegally, according to the newspaper.