73 Migrants Rescued From Home Near Mexico Border

Police officials have rescued 73 kidnapped migrants being held in a house on the border of Mexico and Texas.

According to ABC News, the Immigration Institute says in a statement Monday that 17 migrants are from Honduras, 13 from Guatemala and three from EL Salvador. The other 40 are from Mexico.

CBS News continues on to say that “federal and state agents rescued the migrants from a home in Reynosa, which is across the border from McAllen, Texas.”

CNN reported that the victims had been kidnapped from buses or bus terminals, and about half were Central Americans.

The report continued on to say that federal police followed a car in Reynosa after its occupants tried to avoid them, and when the two men in the car pulled up to a house, so did police officers.

Once police discovered the victims, they discovered that there were six minors among them.

“The victims told police that some had been held between four days and four months. The alleged kidnappers made phone calls to the victims’ families, demanding ransom payments in exchange for their release, the commission said.”

Claims of assault and rape have been made against the two men who had arrived in the car, and a third that allegedly worked as a lookout.

The Inquisitr previously reported on an incident when 165 migrants were rescued in Mexico, near the US border in La Joya, after being held captive for up to three weeks

The report stated that the victims were trying to cross the border, but instead were handed over to criminal groups who demanded money from their families after the kidnapping.

In that case, of the 165 migrants, 150 were from Central America, 14 were Mexican nationals, and one was reported to be from India.

According to CNN, its likely that the majority of the 73 people rescued from the house in Reynosa were migrants on their way north to the US.

[Image via Peretz Partensky]