Thread: Lawmakers Demand Gov't Action as Border Patrolmen Prepare fo

Lawmakers Demand Gov't Action as Border Patrolmen Prepare for Jail

By Monisha Bansal
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
January 11, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - Two U.S. Border Patrol agents who were "prosecuted for doing their job" in the view of many members of Congress, will begin long jail terms next week unless President Bush or the Department of Justice intervenes.

More than 20 lawmakers from both parties sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Wednesday, expressing their concern about the case and asking him to act.

Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean face sentences of 11 and 12 years in federal prison respectively after being convicted on a range of offenses arising from the shooting of a fleeing Mexican drug smuggler.

The lawmakers asked Gonzales not to oppose a motion filed in court that aims to keep the two from having to report to prison next week.

On Feb. 17, 2005, Ramos and Compean were on duty near El Paso, Texas, when they encountered Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila in a van carrying 743 pounds of marijuana. When the agents tried to stop him, he fled. Unable to shake the pursuing agents, he abandoned his van and continued toward Mexico on foot.

The agents' version of what happened next contradicts Aldrete-Davila's testimony. The one thing all agree on is that, while fleeing, the illegal alien and drug smuggler was shot. Aldrete-Davila was treated at a hospital in El Paso and then returned to Mexico.

After learning of the shooting, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton sought out Aldrete-Davila in Mexico and offered him immunity from prosecution if he would return to the United States to testify against the two agents.

Ramos and Compean were convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with serious bodily injury, discharge of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence, willfully violating Aldrete-Davila's Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizure and obstruction of justice for intentionally defacing the crime scene, lying about the incident, and failing to report the truth.

The initial immunity offer covered Aldrete-Davila's illegal entry into the U.S., the drug smuggling and his unlawful flight from the agents to avoid arrest. Sutton subsequently expanded the immunity to include a subsequent drug offense, when Aldrete-Davila tried to smuggle another 1,000 pounds of marijuana into the United States.

"These two border agents were basically prosecuted for doing their job," said Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) told reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

He called the government's actions "very disturbing," claiming that the government chose the side of drug smugglers not "the American people."

"The government chose sides in this issue, and they chose the wrong side when they decided to prosecute these agents," Poe said.

Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), who has led efforts to urge the president to pardon Ramos and Compean, called the two agents "heroes."

"This is one of the worst examples of injustice," he said. "I am very, very disappointed in the indifference by this White House as it relates to these two men and their families.

"They are an example of being crucified by the federal government, quite frankly," said Jones.

The congressmen also encouraged the Justice Department to investigate Sutton and allegations that he has a history of pursuing border patrol agents.

Sutton's office did not return phone calls seeking comment for this article, and a spokesman for Gonzales' office declined to comment.


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Alvira Arellano is holed up in a Chicago storefront church while agents who were doing their job are going to jail.

This is disgusting.