Texas Border Patrol discovers hotel room packed with illegals in suspected human smuggling operation

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Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin gives an update on conditions at the southern border.

Texas Border Patrol agents discovered a hotel room in which 10 illegal immigrants were staying while they waited to be smuggled deeper into the U.S.

Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents received a tip Friday afternoon about a hotel in Edinburg being used to harbor illegal immigrants. The city is located in the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexico border. 

A hotel room in Ediburg, Texas.  (CBP)

Agents went to investigate the hotel and witnessed two individuals enter the suspected room with several jugs of water and groceries. They continued to surveil the hotel room and determined it was being used to harbor illegal immigrants, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said. 

The Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office conducted a welfare check and discovered more than 10 people in the room. CBP said the people were citizens from El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico. 

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The migrants reportedly told the officers that they had been waiting to be transported further into the U.S. for nearly 30 days. 

The next morning, McAllen Border Patrol Station agents in Hidalgo discovered more illegal immigrants – including an unaccompanied child – using a storm drain to illegally enter the U.S. 

From early that morning until late in the evening, MCS agents and the Hidalgo Police Department set up a perimeter and arrested about 10 people using the storm drain to illegally enter the U.S. All subjects were citizens of Mexico and Honduras. 

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The migrants apprehended at the hotel room and using the storm drain are all being processed, CBP said. 

Hidalgo is about 20 miles south of Edinburg, a stone’s throw from the U.S.-Mexico border. 

The discovery came as thousands of Haitian migrants have overwhelmed agents at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent days. On Monday, more than 6,000 Haitians and other migrants were removed from an encampment at a Texas border town.