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No More Federal Money to Jail Border Agents, Congressman Says
By Fred Lucas
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
January 26, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - Members of Congress who have called on the administration to change course on the controversial jailing of two U.S. Border Patrol agents for shooting a suspected Mexican drug smuggler are trying a new approach. Now lawmakers want to exert the only explicit power they have in a criminal justice case - money.

Several members of the House are drafting legislation to cut off funding specifically for the incarceration of border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, sentenced to 11 and 12 years respectively.

The case unleashed a storm of criticism. Lawmakers first called for hearings into why the Justice Department granted immunity to a suspected drug smuggler so he would testify against two agents who shot him.

Two bills were later introduced in the House - one calling on President Bush to pardon to the two agents and the other to vacate the federal court's conviction.

Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) has signed on to both proposals but knows the power of Congress is limited in vacating a court ruling, given the constitutional separation of powers.

"There are constitutional issues with that," Poe told Cybercast News Service Friday.

"We do have the power of the purse. We can prohibit funds for the incarceration of the two border agents. That legislation was talked about last week. In the next week, it should be introduced."

Poe said while it was not his idea, he would sign on to the bill and expects many other members to do so as well, considering 50 members urged the president to pardon the agents and 70 signed on to a bill to vacate the court ruling.

A spokesman with the U.S. Department of Justice could not be reached for comment late Friday, nor could U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of Texas, who brought the charges and made the immunity deal with the Mexican.

The matter began on Feb. 17, 2005, when the two agents first encountered Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila in a van that was later found to contain more than 700 pounds of marijuana. When Aldrete-Davila tried to flee, the agents shot him - he was hit once in the buttocks - as he was heading back towards Mexico.

The case stirred outrage not only because Sutton prosecuted the case but because of the tenacity in which he pursued it. He sought out Aldrete-Davila in Mexico and offered him immunity from prosecution if he returned to the United States to testify against the two agents.

After a two-week trial last year, 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 the illegal immigrant's constitutional rights, lying about the incident and failing to report the truth.

Sutton argued in an interview with Cybercast News Service this week that as a responsible prosecutor he could not turn his head to a violent crime just because it was committed by two federal agents.

He said the evidence in the trial made it clear the agents did not know Aldrete-Davila had been smuggling drugs at the time they fired 15 shots at him. He said jurors in the case also knew that Aldrete-Davila had tried to bring drugs in the country.

Poe said he was pleased to hear Sutton was pursuing an investigation of Aldrete-Davila for a potential second offense of trying to smuggle more drugs into the United States, a revelation first reported by Cybercast News Service Friday.

"At least the U.S. attorney is admitting there is a second case," Poe said. "He would not even admit that before."

A widely reported but unsubstantiated allegation that Aldrete-Davila after the first incident had tried to smuggle another 1,000 pounds of marijuana into the country was not admissible in the Ramos and Compean trial because of fears it would jeopardize an ongoing investigation.

Poe filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to force the agency to provide Congress the investigative documents. The agency had previously denied a request by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) for the documents.

Poe said no congressional action would be necessary if President Bush pardons the two agents.

"He has the opportunity to fully review the case and exercise his powers of pardon or parole," Poe said. "This country has discussed amnesty for 12-to-20 million illegal immigrants. All we're asking for is amnesty for two American citizens."