Jailed former agents closer to hearing (11:25 a.m.)

By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 03/13/2007 11:12:11 AM MDT


Jailed El Paso Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean are one step closer to getting a long-promised congressional hearing looking into their case, U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. said today.
Rohrabacher said the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., has granted Rohrabacher's request for a hearing. The congressman said he wanted the hearing to "explore possible foreign influence in the ruthless prosecution of Border Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean," according to a news release.

Ramos and Compean were convicted of violating the civil rights of a drug smuggler they shot in the buttocks as he was

The Department of Justice fact sheet on the border agents' case. running back to Mexico near Fabens in 2005. They were also convicted of tampering with evidence for not reporting the shooting and because Compean picked up shell casings. Ramos was sentenced to 11 years in prison and Compean to 12 years; both men are appealing.
"If a foreign government is having


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
an undue influence on the decisions of our government to make concessions for illegal aliens over our law enforcement officers, the American people have a right to know about it," Rohrabacher said.
A hearing date has not been set.



http://www.elpasotimes.com/breakingnews/ci_5426076