Thread: Naked man chasing girl convicted of immigrant smuggling (updated)

Naked man chasing girl convicted of immigrant smuggling

June 07, 2012 5:53 PM
By JARED TAYLOR/The Monitor

McALLEN — Federal jurors Thursday convicted a San Juan man in an immigrant smuggling case involving a 16-year-old girl with whom he tried to have sex.

Pedro Salazar, 56, was convicted Thursday of conspiracy and harboring illegal aliens in U.S. District Court in McAllen.

Jurors spent less than three hours deliberating the verdict following a two-day trial.

Prosecutors said a group of three illegal immigrants from El Salvador and Guatemala* fled a two-vehicle accident Feb. 24.

After the group hid in the brush for a few hours, they wandered down a road, whereSalazar passed and asked if they needed help. They said yes.

Salazar offered to feed the immigrants, but he instead drove them to his restaurant where he put them to work, prosecutors said.

The immigrants painted, set up display cases and shelves, dusted, swept and mopped for six hours before Salazar gave them food, prosecutors said. After that, they performed more chores.

Salazar eventually took the immigrants back to his residence.
The next morning, he woke the two men in the group and told them to paint the gate at his ranch. At the same time, he attempted to sleep with the other member of the immigrant group: a 16-year-old girl.

Naked, Salazar chased the girl around a room and told her she needed to have sex with him or “there would be problems,” prosecutors said in a statement. The girl testified she thought that meant Salazar would call immigration authorities and report her.

The girl testified she told Salazar she would call the police if he tried to have sex with her because she was a minor.
Salazar relented, and the next day, he told the three immigrants to leave.

Salazar's defense tried to convince jurors he was not harboring the immigrants. Rather, he was attempting to provide humanitarian aid.

Jurors disagreed and convicted Salazar on one count of conspiracy and two counts of harboring illegal aliens. He faces up to 10 years in prison on the conspiracy charge and five years on each of the harboring charges.

U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez ordered Salazar to remain in custody ahead of his sentencing, set for Aug. 16.

Naked man chasing girl convicted of immigrant smuggling | mcallen, naked, chasing - Brownsville Herald



*El Salvador and Guatemala are members of the Bridge Initiative

US signs historic deal with El Salvador and Honduras for remittance securitization

The United States has recently signed separate Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with El Salvador and Honduras to assist them in securitizing their future remittance receipts to raise financing for infrastructure and development projects.

Under the Building Remittance Investment for Development, Growth, and Entrepreneurship (BRIDGE) initiative, banks in these countries will leverage their future remittance receipts to raise lower-cost and longer-term financing in international capital markets to fund infrastructure, public works, and commercial development initiatives (see press release).

In a speech in New York City on September 22, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton explained how BRIDGE would work to raise critically needed development funding:
US signs historic deal with El Salvador and Honduras for remittance securitization