A third judicial district judge refused to reduce the bail for Sunland Park Mayor Pro Tem Daniel Salinas and City Manager Jaime Aguilera Monday.

The bail is currently set at $50,000 cash only.

Dona Ana County District Attorney Amy Orlando argued that both men have ties in Mexico and could easily flee. She pointed out that Aguilera already has a criminal record involving fraud.

"Based on what I'm hearing, I am denying the motion to reduce the bond at this time," Schultz said.

Orlando said that Saturday's arrests of the men have encouraged new witnesses to come forward with information on the case.

"We have people that say they used to work there and have documents and they have information but they were always afraid to come forward in fear of retaliation," Orlando said.

Defense attorney Bradley Sims failed to convince the judge that the bail was excessive, as he insisted.

"He represents no threat to anyone," Sims said about Salinas.

Sims said that both men have a history of public service and have close ties within Sunland Park.

Orlando, meanwhile, also said that mayoral candidate Gerardo Hernandez, the man shown in a video with a topless woman, has received threats following the announcement of the extortion charges.

Hernandez alleges that someone tried to force him to drop out of the mayoral race against Salinas, or face the release of the video.

Salinas denied having anything to do with the blackmail allegations when KFOX14 spoke with him last week.

"I'm an honest person," Salinas said.

Salinas said that his campaign staffers were anonymously given the video on a flash drive left in their campaign tent. He said he doesn't know where it came from or who shot the video.

Orlando said that Sunland Park City Attorney Frank Coppler and Salinas' supporters may be trying to come up with the cash to bond the men out, though she is not positive.