Law enforcement and Border Patrol agents discovered 47 illegal immigrants being held against their will in a “stash house” in Pharr, Texas, on Sunday morning, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Wednesday.
The Pharr Police Department received a 911 call from a man inside the house who said a number of people were being held against their will. Responding officers discovered nearly four dozen people inside the house and worked with immigration agents to rescue the group, the federal agency said.
Those apprehended are from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras. They were taken to the McAllen Border Patrol Station and processed through the system.
Among the group was a young woman from El Salvador who said she was raped by two of the smugglers. She also said the rape was recorded on an iPad.
U.S. officials arrested a Mexican national and identified him as one of the smugglers responsible for transporting foreigners into the country illegally, but did not specify whether he was involved in the rape.
Pharr is on the southern tip of Texas and is part of the Rio Grande Valley, which has the highest rates of human smuggling in the country, according to a Border Patrol spokesman.
