Thread: Federal prosecutor was just doing his job

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Federal prosecutor was just doing his job

SAN DIEGO — For an agent of the Mexican government, Johnny Sutton speaks pretty good English.

That's the title that anti-immigrant zealots hung on the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas after prosecutors in his office convicted ex-Border Patrol agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos of shooting 15 times at an unarmed suspect who was running away. Sentenced to 12 years and 11 years in prison, respectively, the former agents are now behind bars.

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Because the defendants were once Border Patrol agents, and because the convictions relied on testimony from the victim — a Mexican drug smuggler who got immunity — the prosecutors have become absolutely toxic in the minds of those who think an invasion is under way and that Border Patrol agents are the sentries against the tide.

Hence the accusation by some that Sutton — along with his bosses, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and President Bush — has become an agent of the Mexican government.

"We just evaluate the facts," Sutton told me last week. "We don't get to choose the facts. We don't get to choose the witnesses. We just have to decide whether a crime was committed and whether it's appropriate that it be prosecuted."

According to the evidence presented at the trial, including the agents' testimony and their statements after the incident, here are the facts.

On Feb. 17, 2005, at about 1 p.m., Compean and Ramos were on duty along the U.S./Mexico border when they observed a suspicious vehicle — a van that turned out to be loaded with more than 700 pounds of marijuana. The driver — later identified as Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila — jumped out of the vehicle and tried to run back into Mexico. Ramos and Compean both testified that they made a point of looking at the suspect's hands and saw no weapon. Compean fired at least 14 rounds and Ramos fired once. Ramos wounded the suspect and saw him limp into Mexico. The agents then collected the shell casings and filed false reports, trying to cover up the incident.

The case has become a cause celebre for radio talk show hosts, anti-immigrant groups, congressional Republicans, Minuteman vigilantes and cable television talkers with a knack for turning ranting into ratings.

The convictions also have been sucked into the wind tunnel of the immigration debate and turned GOP hard-liners into bleeding hearts. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., wrote a resolution demanding that President Bush pardon Compean and Ramos. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., has called Bush a "disgrace" and someone who is "on the side of our enemies." And Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif. — who used to be a lobbyist for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a nativist organization that wants to limit even legal immigration — quipped that, since Bush wants amnesty for 12 million illegal immigrants, he should simply add two more names to the list.

So basically, Bilbray lumped together former Border Patrol agents with illegal immigrants. And what would the two have in common? Only Spanish surnames. Apparently, you can take the congressman out of the nativist group but you can't take the nativism out of the congressman.

I asked Sutton about the insistence by some that this case illustrates the contempt that the Bush administration has for border security and the Border Patrol.

"I don't take it too seriously," he said. "I'm a federal prosecutor in charge of prosecuting drugs and immigration for 660 miles of Mexican/Texas border. I'm in the business of locking up illegal aliens who come across and drug smugglers who come across, and so I work with Border Patrol day in and day out."

Sutton said that he personally has a lot of respect for the Border Patrol and its awesome responsibilities.

"They do have a very, very hard job," he said. "And 99.9 percent of them are out there doing it right, abiding by the rules ... in these very stressful situations, and they're doing just fine. But when you're in those kinds of high-stress situations, you can make big mistakes."

By all accounts, these two agents made big mistakes. The same goes for those who are now shamelessly using this sad case to advance their own agendas.

"It's just so rare that you have a situation like this," Sutton said. "But (Border Patrol agents) are human beings and sometimes just like anyone else they're going to step over the line and, if they commit crimes, just like everybody else, they're not above the law."

President Bush has said that he will examine the case and determine if a pardon is warranted.

It isn't.

Ruben Navarrette Jr., is a columnist and editorial board member of The San Diego Union Tribune.

ruben.navarrette@uniontrib.com

© 2007 The San Diego Union-Tribune

Only people like Navarette will try to defend Sutton and Bush on this. I can't even read his dribble.