Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean are Released!
Posted on Wednesday, February 18 @ 09:46:29 EST
Topic: Illegal Immigration News in the US
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 Ex-Border Patrol agents convicted in shooting released from prison
By Ramon Bracamontes / El Paso Times
Posted: 02/17/2009 09:33:32 AM MST
EL PASO - Former U.S. border patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean
were released from prison Tuesday, but will remain in a community
confinement program until March 20, U.S. Bureau of Prison officials
said.
The two agents had been in prison since 2007. President George W. Bush commuted their sentences before he left office.
Traci Billingsley, bureau of prisons
spokeswoman, said Tuesday that the two men are out of prison and under
the "supervision of the community corrections office for a period of
community confinement."
Community confinement means the sentenced person has to spend the
last phrase of their sentence either in a halfway house or in home
confinement.
Dallas criminal defense lawyer Ed Mason, who represented Compean in his appeal, said Tuesday morning that he had not yet talked to Compean but was awaiting his phone call.
"I think he might be on his way to El Paso," Mason said in a telephone interview. "We haven't been able to talk to him yet."
Billingsley said she could not release where the two agents would
spend the last month of their sentence, but it is possible they could
spend it at home.
Compean had been in the Elkton Federal Prison in Elkton, Ohio. Ramos was at the Phoenix Federal Prison.
The two former agents were convicted of shooting a drug smuggler and then trying to cover it up. Compean
was sentenced to 12 years and Ramos to 11 years in prison. Both agents
were found guilty of civil-rights violations and discharging a firearm
during the act of a crime, an offense that includes a mandatory 10-year
sentence.
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Border agents celebrate homecoming
He said, 'I love you, and he just embraced me'
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Posted: February 17, 2009
8:31 pm Eastern
By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean left their cells in solitary confinement to reunite with their families in El Paso, Texas, today.
"He said, 'I love you.' And he just embraced me," Monica Ramos said on
Fox News' Glenn Beck television show today in the first interview
following their release.
After serving two years in federal prison in solitary confinement for
shooting a fleeing Mexican drug smuggler who had brought 750 pounds of
marijuana into the U.S., Ramos and Compean
are being released into home confinement until March 20. The news came
only two weeks after the Federal Bureau of Prisons told WND they could
be eligible to finish sentences at home.
The Bureau of Prisons has instructed them to wear ankle bracelets and
refrain from speaking to the press until their official release date.
"It was wonderful," Ramos said of her exciting day. "It's gone by
pretty fast, so we can only hope the next 33 days go as fast."
Ramos said their children are "extremely excited" about seeing their father.
"They had a couple of minutes with their father, here," she said. "It's
really overwhelming for them. They finally hugged their dad, and they
know it's real. In time, I think we'll begin the healing process."
She said her husband looked relieved when she first saw him in the airport.
"He just looked around, just very appreciative, looking around and just absorbing the environment that he was in."
Patty Compean told the Glenn Beck television show that her family needed time to spend with Jose before participating in interviews.
"They've been in solitary confinement without any human contact except for the guards and visitors for two years," Patty Compean
told WND when she first learned of the commutation. "Things have
changed. Jose's been gone for two years. That's a lot to take in."
Several media personalities asked to witness the homecoming, including
Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, but Patty said her family is
not ready for the crowd.
"Everybody has contributed in one way or another to this," she told
WND. "Honestly, at this point, I'd love to have people there, but at
the same time, I want to have that moment for us. It's been two years."
Ramos's attorney, David Botsford, said the families are still waiting for a decision from the Supreme Court on the cases.
"We've asked the Supreme Court to review the convictions on the
remaining counts that the Fifth Circuit had not set aside because it's
our goal to vindicate these gentlemen entirely and get them back on the
job with law enforcement, which is what their dreams and their goals
and their careers have been."
Beck asked why Ramos would ever consider returning to law enforcement positions when the government "sold him down the river."
"Well, he may not trust his government, but he loves his country,"
Botsford replied. "He wants to serve, as he has done with honor and
distinction in the past. And that's what his career aspirations are and
hopefully we'll get them both back to that spot if that's what they so
desire."
In the interview with Beck, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, summarized a number
of falsehoods Congress had been told about the border agents' case.
"We were told that these two border agents went out that day to shoot
an illegal, which is an absolute lie," he said. "We were also told that
they knew that the drug dealer was unarmed. That is a lie. They both
believed him to be armed. But, most importantly, the U.S. attorney's
office told us … that the drug dealer didn't bring in drugs a second
time. … I figured out that was a lie, too."
He continued, "Both these individuals were political prisoners. We want
to get to the bottom of what the involvement of the Mexican government
was in prosecuting these two guys. "
Poe said he believes that there's a real problem on both sides of the
border and that this was the only case where the U.S. attorney's office
went on a "nationwide Madison Avenue PR stunt" to justify prosecution.
"It just seems like there's a rat in the room," Poe said. "And we want to get rid of it."
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