Ranch owner disputes DPS arrests
Lawyer says permission to apprehend migrants on tract of land wasn’t given
A ranch owner is contesting hundreds of migrant arrests on his land in Eagle Pass, along the Rio Grande, saying state troopers working for Gov. Greg Abbott never had permission to initiate the crackdown there this summer.
Beyer Junfin’s lawyer said he never authorized the arrests, and he has repeatedly asked that the more than 650 trespassing cases be dropped. The Department of Public Safety says Junfin agreed verbally and the local county attorney has continued to prosecute the migrants under the premise that some of the ranchers’ text messages amount to written consent.
Junfin’s attorney, Democratic state Rep. Eddie Morales Jr., says the rancher and his family are “being thrust into the limelight without really wanting it.”
The dispute comes as the tiny border city is seeing a surge in crossings and throws into question the legal footing of the charges. Arrests on the property made up many of the trespassing charges filed under Abbott’s sweeping border initiative, known as Operation Lone Star, through last month.
More broadly, the conflict highlights the tenuous nature of the “catch-and-jail” scheme at the heart of Operation Lone Star. The state’s ability to charge migrants with trespassing hinges on landowners’ consent. DPS has written agreements to make arrests on 354 properties along the border, said Victor Escalon, a DPS director overseeing South Texas. Junfin is the first landowner to ask the agency to stop arrests on their property, he said.
Junfin, who co-owns the 2,000-acre ranch and does not live there, contends a chunk of the arrest documents bearing his name are flat-out wrong. Many of them say he signed a formal agreement with the state, which he did not, and that his sister gave permission for the arrests even though she doesn’t own the land.
The migrants’ defense lawyers believe the cases against their clients are built on false information and should be thrown out. Many of the migrants, however, have already pleaded guilty.
“This is a complete miscarriage of justice and highlights the problematic nature of the Operation Lone Star prosecution system,” said Amrutha Jindal, an attorney with the Lubbock Private Defenders Office, which ap
points lawyers for migrants charged in seven counties. “The hundreds of people arrested on the Junfin property are asylum seekers. They’re not trying to sneak into the United States.”
‘Get after um’
Trespassing is typically a minor state crime, but Abbott has deployed the charge as a way to go after migrants who can usually only be detained by federal immigration officials. The bulk of the agency’s agreements with landowners are in the Del Rio and Laredo sectors, which include 10 counties along the U.S.Mexico border, Escalon said.
In Eagle Pass alone, hundreds of migrants were directed by state officials over the summer onto properties where they were promptly arrested. Troopers arrested at least 668 migrants on Junfin’s property alone from mid-June to early August, when he asked that they stop.
Junfin wrote in a sworn statement on Aug. 29 that he never gave “oral or written permission” to state law enforcement and “never authorized criminal trespass arrests on my property.”
But Ryan Glenn, a Texas Highway Patrol supervisor, said in a sworn statement that he and Escalon met with Junfin at his office on June 26, and Junfin said he wanted “persons trespassing on his property, who refused to leave,” to be arrested.
Glenn said in the statement that he communicated with Junfin multiple times by phone after and Junfin was “continually supportive” of DPS arresting migrants on his land.
In text exchanges Morales provided to Hearst Newspapers, Junfin rarely responded to Glenn’s texts about migrants on his property. Similarly, he answered only in spurts to the county attorney, who also began poking Junfin about bringing charges.
“Group of about 300 headed towards your place,” Glenn wrote on the morning of June 28. “We can arrest for trespassing on single males and females if you want us to.” Junfin never responded.
Glenn followed up that afternoon: “We arrested 41 males for trespassing at your property that wouldn’t leave.” Again, no response.
The next evening, Glenn texted Junfin a picture of several migrants on the banks of the Rio Grande and wrote: “They are bringing tents to your place now.”
Junfin wrote back for the first time: “Get after um.”
By early August, a public backlash was brewing over allegations that state troopers mistreated migrants in Eagle Pass. On Aug. 2, the city of Eagle Pass revoked an agreement that let DPS arrest migrants in a public park. That same day, Maverick County Attorney Jaime Iracheta, pressed Junfin for an update on a signed affidavit for DPS to use the property: “What are we waiting on?”
“Someone said that you have a verbal agreement to allow us to make criminal trespassing arrests, but we don’t have the affidavit yet so I figured I’d reach out directly,” Iracheta wrote. “Does that ring a bell?”
“Yes in eaglepass (sic),” Junfin responded.
“OK, so verbally we are allowed, correct?” Iracheta asked. Junfin never responded. Escalon said it is not uncommon for that consent to be given verbally, even though it is a “priority” for troopers to get written authorization.
“Whether it’s verbal or written, it matters not. If he doesn’t want us there anymore, OK. We respect the decision and move out,” he said, adding: “It’s just cleaner when you have a document to refer back to when somebody does he said, she said.”
‘I’m target No. 1’
Soon after the city pulled its agreement with DPS, Junfin asked that they stop going after migrants on his land, as well. Arrests in Eagle Pass plummeted.
Morales said the final straw for Junfin — whose name was now listed as the complainant in hundreds of trespassing arrests — was when he learned the state had put a sign with his name marking his property line along the Rio Grande. Such signs dot the razed banks of the river, noting properties where troopers are authorized to make arrests and where owners have not given that permission.
“He’s like, ‘the cartels and coyotes get to see my name and now I’m target No. 1 over there in Mexico,’” Morales said, referring to criminal groups and people who help smuggle migrants across the border, where Junfin, his wife and their four children live.
Morales said Junfin, his wife and their four children live in Piedras Negras, the Mexican city across the river from Eagle Pass. Junfin’s wife’s family owns a funeral home there, as well.
The Junfin family is well known in the area, where they own multiple tracts of land. Beyer Junfin’s parents run a natural insecticide company on land north of Eagle Pass, where they breed flies that eat unwanted bugs and crops.
“He said, ‘I didn’t give them access, I didn’t tell them it was OK to put up the signage, I didn’t sign an affidavit, and they’re just doing all this stuff on my property,’” Morales said.
Prosecutor responds
The arrests stopped, but Iracheta plowed ahead with the charges in court — including the more than 120 in which charging documents wrongly claimed Junfin signed an affidavit, according to a copy of a WhatsApp message exchange that Morales provided.
Iracheta has fiercely defended state troopers after the allegations of mistreatment of migrants came to light this summer, writing in a Facebook post at the time: “Imagine if DPS decided to pull assets out of Maverick County. Who would respond to help for the thousands of individuals crossing into our community daily? Who would protect our landowners and community?
“Instead of believing every outlandish claim made against our men and women of law enforcement, let’s thank them for the services provided to our community.”
Eventually, Junfin started directly pressing Iracheta to drop the charges.
Defense attorneys have also pushed to drop them, to no avail.
In an early September email exchange with one defense attorney, Iracheta wrote that his office was not taking new cases from Junfin’s property, but was continuing with those from the summer, because Junfin had provided “verbal and text message authorization.” Iracheta dismissed a signed affidavit from late August saying the opposite.
“Unfortunately he has lied,” Iracheta wrote.
Iracheta told Hearst Newspapers that the majority of those charged on the Junfin tract have pleaded guilty. He said he is reviewing the few cases that remain and considering dismissing them, though he would not say how many are under review.
Iracheta said he believes he is on firm legal footing either way. He argued that Junfin texting “get after um” to Glenn about migrants on his property amounts to written authorization.
“I do not appreciate hostile witnesses or crazy defense attorneys spinning the facts to fit their agenda,” Iracheta said. “We have worked hard to fight crime in our community and will continue to do what is right.”