Migrant hideout raided (El Paso Times)

Migrant hideout raided
By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 03/07/2008 12:00:00 AM MST
Five undocumented immigrants on Thursday were found hiding in a Lower Valley house that neighbors suspect might have been used for illegal activity for a while.
The immigrants were four men and a woman, all in their 20s, from the Mexican states of Zacatecas and Michoacan, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
ICE officials would not confirm that the house was part of a larger immigrant smuggling ring and would not say how long the house might have been used to hide undocumented immigrants.
But residents of the neighborhood, in the 200 block of Ben Swain, said the house was known for suspicious activity.
Neighbors also said activity at the home was "unusual" because cars and people would "come and go" throughout the night.
The inhabitants, which neighbors said included an older woman, a woman in her 20s, a man in his 40s and a teen-age boy, converted a toolshed in the backyard into a bedroom and erected a 7-foot rock wall.
Thursday, officials raided the home owned by Francisco Morales, 31, and found the undocumented immigrants.
Morales was arrested and charged with harboring and transportation of aliens.
ICE spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa said the migrants were all in good health because they had been at the house for only a day.
"They said they had just crossed yesterday," Zamarripa said.
The investigation revealed that some of the migrants paid $800 and others $2,000 to be smuggled into the United States. The woman was allegedly headed to St. Louis, while the men wanted to go to Dallas and San Antonio.
Anna Nazario said she and her sister who, lives on Ben Swain Drive, saw the raid.
"They had these people sitting on a little rock wall with handcuffs," she said. "The man from Homeland Security told my sister not to be alarmed, that it wasn't drugs, that they were harboring illegal immigrants."
Nazario said the occupants of the house kept to themselves.
ICE and Border Patrol agents and El Paso County sheriff's deputies working together as the Border Enforcement Security Team, or BEST, also seized a 1998 Ford Expedition.

Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com; 546-6131.