Raul G. Salinas

Raul Gonzalez Salinas (born November 8, 1947) is a private security consultant, a businessman, and a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who was elected mayor of Laredo, Texas, on June 17, 2006. A self-styled political outsider, Salinas defeated 8-year city councilman John Clifford Galo (born 1958) by almost exactly 1,000 ballots in a low-turnout election: 9,665 votes (52.75 percent) to 8,657 (47.25 percent).

Salinas is a native of Alice, Texas, the seat of Jim Wells County east of Laredo. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park.

Mayor Salinas is concerned AbOUT defending his town's people by saying the Republican Bill which includes miles of border wall would devastate Laredo. He states "these are people that are sustaining our economy by forty percent, and I am gonna(sic) close the door on them and put a wall? You don't do that. It's like a slap in the face." He hopes that Congress would revise the Bill that better reflects the realities of life on the border.