Border Patrol arrested a Mexican woman illegally living in Edinburg on Tuesday after they found she was harboring 21 people illegally present in the United States at her residence, according to a criminal complaint.
The complaint said Sanjuana Yurit Garcia-Salazar, who was born in 1983, had been smuggling and harboring people for about two years.
According to the document, agents received information about her in October 2021.
On Tuesday, agents conducting surveillance saw her leave her house at 3710 Xander St. in a black Chevrolet HHR and asked other nearby agents and the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office for help, the complaint said.
A sheriff’s deputy stopped her for failing to maintain a single lane and failing to signal a lane change, according to the report.
“Garcia-Salazar indicated she was coming from her house and freely admitted that there were [15 to 16] people there,” the complaint said. “[Garcia-Salazar] freely consented to a search of her residence, signed a consent form, told agents the house is unlocked and that agents could just open the door.”
Agents, with the assistance of the sheriff’s office, conducted a consensual search of the residence and found 21 people. All of them, including Garcia-Salazar, were arrested and transported to a station in McAllen for processing, the complaint said.
Garcia-Salazar admitted she crossed into the U.S. illegally in August 2011 near Hidalgo and said she had been smuggling and harboring on average 10 to 60 people per week for the past two years.
She was paid between $100 to $250 per person.
Two people from El Salvador and Guatemala identified Garcia-Salazar as the caretaker of the house in a photo lineup.
She is set to stand before Magistrate Judge Nadia S. Medrano for her detention hearing Sept. 20.
