Eagle Pass mayor declares public city park 'private property' so DPS can arrest migrants

The mayor says the state asked him to make the ruling, but an immigration attorney says the move "casts doubt" on whether the 400 arrests made so far are lawful.

Austin American-Statesman
John C. Moritz, Tony Plohetski, Austin American-Statesman
July 21, 2023

EAGLE PASS — Shelby Park has long been this border town's premier public space, a 47-acre tract where people could freely enjoy the beauty that stretches from downtown to the Rio Grande.

Then, around June, Mayor Rolando Salinas said leaders with the state border security initiative, called Operation Lone Star, asked him to sign an affidavit declaring that park would become private property. His signature would give DPS the power to "enforce the criminal trespass statute, of the Texas Penal Code."

With its proximity to the Rio Grande, deputies now had the authority to arrest migrants who crossed the river and walked into the park. And it worked: more than 400 immigrants have been jailed for entering the park since June, attorneys for the migrants said.

The mayor said he did not remember who asked him to sign the document, but a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed that it was at his agency's request.

Salinas told the American-Statesman he acted on his own and did not seek approval from the Eagle Pass city council before signing the document.

The use of the affidavit provides a lens into how DPS tapped one local leader to take part in a larger tactic by Texas and Gov. Greg Abbott try to rein in a record number of migrants, be it by creative legal strategies or buoys wrapped in layers of razor wire that have lacerated untold numbers of men, women and children while crossing the river.

"It was described to me as a legal instrument to help our county attorney make cases (against arrested migrants)," Salinas said in an interview, adding that he did not view the phrase "private property" as a binding legal description for the signature park.

He also defended the decision to effectively close much of Shelby Park.

"People can still use some parts of Shelby Park," Salinas said, adding "with all of what's going on at the river, you can't be out there boating and kayaking. Come on, it's just not feasible."

The park is nestled between downtown Eagle Pass and the Rio Grande. It contains to baseball fields and two soccer field and what had been up until recently a public boat-launching ramp, has been transformed into a staging area with an array of military-style vehicles for Operation Lone Star where troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety and National Guard soldiers keep watch for immigrants crossing illegally.

The vast expanse occupied by the military-law enforcement presence, and by a long train of large metal shipping containers along the Rio Grande shoreline has been off limits to the public for several months.

Kristin Etter, an attorney for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, said calling the park "private property" is false.

She said that to charge a person with trespass, law enforcement must be able to identify a victim, typically a landowner.

"They are using (the affidavit) as the basis to make an arrest," said Etter, adding that the 400 arrests at the park have been made since June. "Without that, there is no basis to arrest anyone in a public park."

The affidavit, obtained at the Statesman and USA Today Network, is a form letter with blank sections filled in by Salinas. It states that the mayor is "acting on behalf of said private property," meaning Shelby Park, and that he authorizes DPS to enforce the state criminal trespass statute.

Etter has filed court documents on behalf of migrants arrested on park property disputing the legal authority for law enforcement officers to take such action.

"(T)here appears to be significant misstatements of fact in the probable cause affidavit which directly casts doubt as to there being a lawful basis for my client’s arrest," Etter said in the document she filed in Maverick County Court on behalf of a migrant arrested in the park on July 4.

She said she plans to file identical court documents in each arrest made at Shelby Park.

Salinas, a lawyer by profession who has been mayor since 2021, said he is "generally supportive" of the aims of Operation Lone Star.

"We kind of have to have this in our community," he said. "If there was absolutely no (state) law enforcement presence, there would be chaos," he said.

But he also said he is dismayed by reports of migrants being mistreated by law enforcement officials, especially the ones enumerated in a widely circulated email from a DPS medic, first published by the Houston Chronicle.

"That's just hideous," he said.

The recent drownings in Eagle Pass areas and the numerous injuries caused by miles of razor wire along the river are also troubling, he said.

The installation of the floating buoy barriers this month at Abbott's order, on top of the disturbing reports Salinas mentioned, has intensified the spotlight on his community. The mayor said the community "is caught in the middle" of the long-running feud between the Republican governor and Democratic President Joe Biden.

"We didn't ask for this," Salinas said. "I wish we would hear from the president about how we solve it.