 | |
| Stash house Photo from the KRGV video |
El Heraldo reported that 56 immigrants, including Hondurans, were rescued after being found locked in an abandoned house in San Juan, Texas. They had no food, water, electricity, or sanitary facilities and were forced to use cans and empty bottles in place of a toilet. The "stash house" was locked with chains and padlocks from the outside.
According to Valley Central news, there were 40 people in the house and that authorities arrested the female coyote, who had $4,000, her two small children, and five immigrants in her car at the time. They found two more immigrants in her home. After questioning, she led them to the stash house. This article includes video of some of the migrants, but I didn't see David.
San Juan (near McAllen) police said it was one of the worst stash houses that they've seen. This KRGV video shows more of the house. "It's not a condition that any human being should be living in. They (the human traffickers) will try to get as much fear and as much indignity to make them want to get out of here and pay the money to move on to where they want to go," Garcia said.
In searching for "stash house", I ran across this recent NY Times article about border security. It reports that the coyote price from Central America is now around $7,000. The article also includes a series of photos.
It pains me to read some of the reader comments on the NYT article. I don't think that I recognize the US anymore. How about this one:
"The only solution, unthinkable here, of course, is to do what the Soviets had done: deadly minefields near the border, watchtowers with border guards licensed to kill."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Related articles:
March 16: Saying goodbye to another friend
March 17: Where is David?
March 25: No news is not good news