ICE: 73 migrants found in Washington D.C. stash houses

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents found 73 migrants living in Northwest D.C. houses operated by human smugglers, according to a leaked report.

Immigration investigators targeted six residential homes in the area they suspected were run by human smugglers and discovered 60 adults and 13 children living in them, according to internal documents reviewed by NBC News.

The northwest quadrant of Washington D.C. contains some of the city’s most affluent neighborhoods like Georgetown, DuPont Circle and Friendship Heights.

According to NBC News, the documents did not give address or neighborhoods for the houses where the migrants were living or say how many were being held in a single house.

“Stash houses” are used by human smugglers to hold and hide those who pay them for help crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, usually undocumented immigrants. Migrants are often squeezed into tight quarters without bedding, running water or air conditioning and told they cannot leave without permission.

Human smugglers are often associated with Mexico’s violent drug cartels. Some migrants who make it across the border have been held hostage by smugglers for a ransom. Sixty percent of women and girls who make the trek to the U.S.-Mexico border are raped, according to reports.

But stash houses are typically closer to the southern border, as migrants usually find their way to live with family members once inside the U.S. It was unclear why so many migrants were being kept in what appear to be stash houses in the nation’s capital, reported NBC News.

Since April, the governors of Arizona and Texas have been sending migrants picked up at the border to Washington D.C.’s Union Station. Mayor Muriel Bowser complained the city’s homeless shelters are being filled with undocumented immigrants who had been “tricked” into traveling there, recently calling on the National Guard for help.