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  1. #1
    Senior Member StokeyBob's Avatar
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    Protesters urge pardon of Border Patrol agents

    This was in the local Mercury News this morning. It was a rainy day for a rally here but it sounds like things turned out well.


    http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...l/16675727.htm


    Posted on Sun, Feb. 11, 2007email thisprint this
    Protesters urge pardon of Border Patrol agents
    By James Hohmann
    Mercury News
    About 20 opponents of illegal immigration gathered outside the San Jose federal building in misting rain Saturday, calling for a full pardon of two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a suspected drug smuggler and lying about it to investigators.

    ``They've been convicted of basically doing their jobs,'' said protest coordinator Roberta Allen of San Jose. ``The worst things these guys should have gotten is a couple days on administrative leave.''

    This recent round of protests -- seven were scheduled around the nation Saturday -- was sparked by reports that Ignacio Ramos, who began an 11-year prison term in January, was attacked by four inmates last weekend following a segment about Ramos on the television show ``America's Most Wanted.''

    Within the anti-immigration community, Ramos and his partner, Jose Alonso Compean, have become cause celebres. Congressmen, talk radio hosts and bloggers have taken up their case, arguing that the jailing of the agents puts a chill on the enforcement of immigration laws and emboldens Mexicans to sneak across the border.

    Jan Murphy, whose son has been a Border Patrol agent in San Diego for a decade, fears the arrests create a dangerous precedent.

    ``It is beyond the scope of reality that this could go on,'' she said. ``He's devoted his life to this. Could this happen to him?''

    Few people were downtown during the two-hour protest at the corner of San Carlos and First streets, the second in a month.

    ``I don't know how much good this will do,'' said Chris Haugen of Palo Alto, who was playing ``God Bless America'' on his pocket trumpet. ``But it is important to do a little bit.''

    A leader in the Bay Area chapter of the Minuteman Project -- a group that sends volunteers to patrol the border -- said they will keep protesting until the two men are released.

    ``I don't know what it's going to take for Americans to wake up and take action,'' said Mike Jones of Fremont. ``To me, it is a travesty.''

    Patricia Diaz, executive director of the Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network, said that Saturday's protest would create division and that the protesters weren't interested in figuring out a way to make the system better.

    ``It's really disappointing that people are engaging in these kinds of tactics instead of looking at ways we can sit down and have a meaningful conversation about ways to fix our immigration system,'' she said.

    Allen, who organized the event, was decked out with American flags on her fingernails, denim jacket, hat and earrings. Even her eyeballs -- aided by special contact lenses -- were a pair of miniature red, white and blue flags.

    ``I don't see how a drug dealer coming into this country illegally is demanding civil rights,'' she said. ``We're committed to doing this every other Saturday until these men are released.''


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact James Hohmann at jhohmann@mercurynews.com or (40 920-5460.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Beckyal's Avatar
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    Drug smuggler should be in jail

    Free border guards and jail drug smugglers, Sutton, Kennedy, McCain, and Bush. the ciminals are running the country.

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