Former JP says he didn’t know illegal immigrants were staying at his ranch
Michael Barnett
March 26, 2007 - 6:17PM

EDINBURG — Former Justice of the Peace Reynaldo Salazar said no one was more surprised than he when 80 illegal immigrants were found crammed into two trailers on his north Edinburg ranch this weekend.

“I was freaking out,” said Salazar, a justice of the peace from 1999 to 2000. “I said, ‘How can that many people be in one place?’”

Edinburg and McAllen police descended on the ranch on Saturday following a tip that they would find stolen trucks there. They discovered five stolen Ford pickup trucks and, after some further investigation, 80 illegal immigrants — many of them women.

Police ending up arresting Salazar, 50, for not paying an outstanding traffic ticket. He was cited in August 2006 for failing to stop at a red light and paid $330 in fines Saturday, police said.

After six hours of questioning from police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Salazar was freed without being charged with the more serious crimes of immigrant smuggling and car theft.

“I’ve cooperated, and I’ll continue to cooperate,” Salazar said.

Authorities, who believe Salazar’s ranch was being used as temporary housing for immigrants heading north, are still looking for suspects in both crimes. They would not say if Salazar has been ruled out as a suspect.

For his part, Salazar blamed two men who rented the two trailers on his five-acre ranch, located off Seminary Road about three miles north of the intersection of Monte Cristo and Seminary roads.

In March 1999, Salazar was appointed justice of the peace for Precint 4, Place 2 following a resignation. He lost his post in the 2000 election.

“I’m totally embarrassed,” said Salazar, now a mentoring coordinator at Workforce Solutions, a job training and placement firm. “I’m shocked. I’m just like, ‘wow, how could someone do this to me.’ And I’m mad. These guys took advantage of me.”

Salazar, who lives in another part of Edinburg, said he only goes to his ranch once a week to mow the lawn or barbecue with friends.

The ranch has two mobile homes, which Salazar said he rented out to the two men under the assumption that they were living there with family.

One of the homes has three bedrooms and two bathrooms; the other is a two-bedroom, one-bathroom structure.

“I knew there were people living in there,” Salazar said. “I didn’t know how many. I assumed everyone was family.”

Of the 80 immigrants, 31 were from El Salvador; 24 were Mexico; 18 were from Guatemala; and seven were from Honduras. Police handed all of them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

“As we’re processing them, we’re asking them questions like, ‘how long have you been in the United States?; ‘what were you doing here?; and ‘how long were you waiting?’” at the ranch, said Nina Pruneda, ICE’s San Antonio-based spokeswoman.

Because people are still being identified, Pruneda said she could not yet say if any suspects — including the two men Salazar said leased the trailers from him — were among the people arrested Saturday.

When police arrived at the ranch Saturday, Salazar said he was mowing the grass. Upon encountering officers, Salazar said he was placed in the back of a police car.

“I never saw any type of illegal operation,” Salazar said. “I had no knowledge of what was going on.”

Looking back, Salazar said the only thing that should’ve prompted suspicion was the large amount of trash generated by the people living in the trailers.

Every week, while mowing the grass, he would place the garbage in his pickup truck for disposal. When the men first moved into the trailers last year, the trash filled three or four bags a week. But, then it became many more.

“All of a sudden,” Salazar said, “it doubled up. And they were big bags.”


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