Border Patrol apprehends dozens of migrants at stash houses after failed smuggling attempts

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Border Patrol agents in Rio Grande Valley (RGV) sector have picked up dozens of migrants at stash houses within the last week -- shining light on the operations smugglers use to get illegal immigrants into the U.S., and the harsh conditions those migrants face.

RGV Sector Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings said that four failed smuggling attempts resulted in 91 migrant apprehensions from stash houses throughout the sector over the weekend.

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That comes after he announced earlier this month that 172 migrants were picked up at stash houses. 

"In one incident, agents discovered 64 migrants inside a human smuggling stash house in Rio Grande City, TX," he said. "Each successful interdiction means a possible life is saved, and a financial loss for smugglers."

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Stash houses are used by smugglers to cram smuggled migrants in at locations where they can be monitored by the smugglers before being moved deeper into the interior of the U.S. Conditions can often be cramped, with migrants facing baking heat and no food or water, sometimes for days.

Cartels also use such stash houses to funnel drugs, currency and other illegal contraband into the U.S.

The border crisis, which has seen skyhigh migrant encounters and record numbers of unaccompanied children, has left agents overwhelmed -- with cartels and smugglers keen to take advantage.

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Border agents have previously told Fox News that smugglers will dump unaccompanied children at one part of the border, so they can sneak in adults and families in through another part while agents are distracted by the unaccompanied children.

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Fox News has previously reported how smugglers are using social media apps to recruit American teenegers to help them smuggle illegal immigrants into the U.S.

If they take it, the teens’ job is to get migrants through checkpoints and then to a drop-off location like a store parking lot, where the migrants are then picked up by someone trusted by the cartel and transferred to stash houses scattered along the border.