Thread: Republicans ask for congressional oversight on border patrol

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/ ... order.html

Republicans ask for congressional oversight on border patrol agents' case
Feb 28, 2007

More than three dozen Republicans on Wednesday asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and three committee chairmen to investigate the case of two U.S. border patrol agents, who are serving long prison sentences for shooting at a suspected drug smuggler at the border.

The case of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean has incensed conservatives, who are claiming that the Bush administration is siding with a Mexican criminal over U.S. border patrol agents.

Now, 38 lawmakers are asking Pelosi, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Ill.), Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) to look into the case.

Led by Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), they say "serious questions remain unanswered by our federal government over the apparently misguided prosecution" of Ramos and Compean.

"Numerous and repeated attempts by members of Congress to ascertain the facts of this case through inquiries with relevant federal agencies have been unsuccessful," the lawmakers say, asking Pelosi and the chairmen to "conduct immediate hearings in all aspects of this case."

The Republicans, stating that the safety of border patrol agents has been damaged, pledge to work with their Democratic counterparts to do what is necessary to conduct such investigations.

- Klaus Marre

This whole case stinks of corruption and Mexican Govt. collusion, it makes me want to puke. How our government could take the word of an illegal alien, drug smuggler, probably a cartel stooge at that, over their own sworn border enforcement officers is beyond me. Maybe they committed an administrative violation, OK, but then again, they always say that illegally crossing without documents is an administrative violation too. I don't see the government going after illegals with as much ferver as they have with these two officers.

This is totally unreal, the way these two guys have been railroaded. This has to be part of a bigger agenda than just holding them accountable for their actions. They must be using these guys as an example to all BP agents, telling them not to go too hard after any drug smugglers or even illegals, or you will the ones getting convicted and sent to jail.