Thread: Bill requires review of border patrol policies

http://dailybulletin.com/news/ci_4340644

Bill requires review of border patrol policies

By Sara A. Carter, Staff Writer
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

Border patrol officials will be required to evaluate the actions and training of their agents in the field as part of an amendment to the border fence bill passed by the House on Thursday.
The amendment was attached to the bill this week by House members questioning internal law enforcement policies that prohibit Border Patrol agents from pursuing fleeing suspects in vehicles.

The Section 5 amendment was in response to circumstances surrounding the conviction of two Texas Border Patrol agents who violated their department's pursuit policy when they chased a fleeing drug smuggler on Feb. 17, 2005.

El Paso Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, whose story was first published in the Daily Bulletin on Aug. 6, are facing 20 years in prison for their role in the nonfatal shooting of Mexican national Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, who ran away from the agents after illegally entering the United States from Mexico in a van filled with nearly 800 pounds of marijuana. Ramos said he shot at the smuggler when he saw a gun pointed at him during the foot chase along the Rio Grande River.

During the trial in the spring, the Texas U.S. Attorney's Office also accused the agents of violating several administrative procedures, including the pursuit of a drug smuggler without supervisory permission.

"Many in this Congress have been following what they believe to be the overreaching prosecution of two Border Patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who believed they were doing their job to protect the U.S. border and keep drugs from entering America," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, to his colleagues on Thursday.

The amendment requires Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to file a full report with Congress evaluating "the authority of personnel of United States Customs and Border Protection to stop vehicles that enter the United States illegally and refuse to stop when ordered to do so," and compare those policies to other department pursuit policies.

Chertoff has 60 days from the passage of the bill to file the report with the House Committee on Homeland Security and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate.

Supporters of the section are touting it as the Ramos-Compean Amendment, said Andy Ramirez, chairman of the Chino-based Friends of the Border Patrol.

"Section 5 is equally dependent upon the integrity of DHS and the Secretary to report back to Congress the facts which have been previously distorted by DHS to the American people," Ramirez said. "Border Patrol agents have had their hands tied for too long."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof, who successfully prosecuted the case, argued before a Texas jury that Ramos and Compean should not have pursued Aldrete-Davila under current Border Patrol policy.

"Border Patrol policy is not to pursue unless a supervisor approves it," said Kanof, in an interview last month with the paper. "They should not have pursued him in the first place."

Border Patrol agents and officials have been highly critical of what they see as a failed policy that binds them from doing their jobs, said TJ Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents nearly 11,000 agents. Many times agents bend the rules to continue pursuing fleeing suspects to accomplish their jobs, Bonner added.

Border Patrol policy requires agents to contact their supervisors immediately at the beginning of a pursuit in order to get permission to continue the pursuit. Many times supervisors don't allow Border Patrol agents to continue the pursuit, so many agents avoid contacting supervisors when pursuing a suspect, Bonner said.

"The policy should absolutely be changed," Bonner said. "The agent on the scene should have the discretion to decide the proper course of action, not a supervisor sitting behind the desk miles away."

"Our Border Patrol agents in the field need a clear and all-inclusive pursuit policy to show that we are serious on defending our border," Poe said. "Anything less makes our Border Patrol agents nothing more than highly specialized and trained Wal-Mart greeters."


Sara A. Carter can be reached by e-mail at sara.carter@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-8552.

Well, I can't speak for everyone else here of course, but, since I've been following the illegal immigration issue (for me about the past 5 months or so) I can say that Sara Carter at the IVDB (Inland Valley Daily Bulletin) has worked tirelessly to research and write about any and all things related to border security, US CPB, Mexican-US relations, the Minutemen etc.

Remember, it was she that 'broke' the news about CBP management providing with Mexican Consulate officials with Minutemen patrol locations, etc. and has written many supporting articles as well.
She has won numerous awards for her investigation and writing at the IVDB.

Sara, just from me... THANK YOU!, you're terrific! Don't change a thing.

(I've written her at least once to tell her so <g>)

"Border Patrol policy is not to pursue unless a supervisor approves it," said Kanof, in an interview last month with the paper. "They should not have pursued him in the first place."

In a televised interview, the pregnant wife of one of the agents told the reporter that this prosecutor had told the agent "he had turned on his people" If this is true, why is this woman still a federal presecutor?