Thread: Free the Border Patrol Two by Debra J. Saunders

Debra J. Saunders


http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |

Prison doors clanged shut last night, leaving two Border Patrol agents locked up among the very types of felons they once helped put away. The agents' families have been wiped out financially, their kids will grow up without a father watching over them, their freedom has been stripped from them. What was the terrible crime that put agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean behind bars for sentences of 11 years and 12 years, respectively?


They fired at a drug smuggler, who had been driving a van with 743 pounds of marijuana, as he ran toward the border to avoid arrest. They say they did not know they wounded him in the buttocks, so they picked up their shells and filed a false report that didn't mention the shooting.


For that, Johnny Sutton, the U.S. attorney for Western Texas, prosecuted the agents. After a two-and-a-half-week trial, a jury found them guilty of assault with a dangerous weapon, discharge of a firearm during a violent crime, obstructing justice, lying about the incident and willfully violating the Fourth Amendment right to be free from illegal seizure of Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, the Mexican drug smuggler, who, incidentally, is suing the Border Patrol for $5 million because his civil rights were violated.


Sutton isn't happy about granting the smuggler immunity, but as he told me over the phone, he didn't have enough evidence to prosecute Aldrete-Davila.


Sutton hates being called "an overzealous prosecutor." As he said in a statement, "In America, law enforcement officers do not get to shoot unarmed suspects who are running away and file official reports that are false." And, "It is shocking that there are people who believe it is OK for agents to shoot at an unarmed suspect who is running away."


As for the long sentences, they are the doing of Congress, which tacked 10 years onto federal sentences for crimes committed with guns — and there is no exemption for law enforcement officers.


Let me say this: Border Patrol agents do not have a right to — and should not — shoot at unarmed suspects. When and if they do shoot unarmed suspects, they should be disciplined — and that includes firing them.


In this case, however, Ramos and Compean say they thought the suspect was armed. Sutton says that's not true. Ditto the drug smuggler — but he has 5 million reasons to lie.


Two of Aldrete-Davila's family members, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, told the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin that the smuggler had been dealing drugs since age 14 and, according to one, he "wouldn't move drugs unless he had a gun on him."


Sutton responded, "There's this impression that all these dopers carry guns," but mules — smugglers such as Aldrete-Davila — "almost never carry guns," because federal law "tacks on five years to their sentence."


Even if everything Sutton says is true, Ramos and Compean most certainly should not spend 11 and 12 years behind bars. I don't think they should spend a single night in prison — not for what was a mistake (if the smuggler was not armed) made in the heat of the moment, even if it was followed with a cover-up.


Americans should not put men in frustrating and dangerous law-enforcement positions, then lock them up and throw away the key if those men do one wrong thing, especially of the sort that angry, scared men sometimes do. It is not as if Ramos and Compean were crooked agents running criminal enterprises and betraying their fellow agents. If they were, they'd probably be facing a shorter sentence.


As T.J. Bonner of the agents' union, told me: "It's going to be terrible. These are good cops going to prison. It's not as if they're bad cops who are going to be accepted into the community. The very people they put away are going to be in the next cell to these guys."


Asked if President Bush would pardon the agents last Friday, White House spokesman Tony Snow noted that a jury had convicted them after a long trial. "We also believe that the people who are working to secure that border themselves obey the law."


Bonner looks at Bush's decision not to pardon the two men as a signal that Dubya doesn't particularly care about securing America's borders.


It is not as if Bush has too many friends and too much public support. I've heard from many Americans who are outraged at these excessive sentences and don't understand why Bush has not used his pardon power to commute the sentences of agents who were just doing their jobs.


If anything happens to these men while they are behind bars, then what will America think of George W. Bush?

As T.J. Bonner of the agents' union, told me: "It's going to be terrible. These are good cops going to prison. It's not as if they're bad cops who are going to be accepted into the community. The very people they put away are going to be in the next cell to these guys."

I am surprised that TJ Bonner has any hair left, I would have pulled mine out long ago.

Because Bush panders to the Mexicans. Bush imo will go down as THE single worst president in the history of OUR country. Even worse then Carter, and that is BAD! He is a piece of feces.

Who would have ever thought a republican Christian Conservative like Georgie would have dismantled the country he swore to serve and protect...man... it feels like a trojan horse ...or a wolf in sheeps clothing...but not a president

Its time for the president to take responsibility for IGNORING OUR IMMIGRATION LAWS! By ignoring our immigration laws, you have helped to cause a war zone on the border. This could be stopped tomorrow if YOU only had a will to do it. INSTEAD YOU PARDON CRIMINALS???????

Leaving our borders wide open, and keeping our border patrol agents and I might add our national guards hands tied...you cause frustration and literal havock on the border. I guess, to be absolutely sure that they(criminals) have a gun...even if it looks like it to the men/women, guarding what little of the border they are allowed to, some without the use of weapons, they must be shot or killed before they can respond and be justified?? ABSURD!!!!

I agree Jak, Bush is causing most of the problems and could easly stop it. Why would any one defend him? Unless they are on his side any ways; he is trying to merge this country with out the will or say of the people or the states. How hard is it to call that treason?

It is not as if Bush has too many friends and too much public support. I've heard from many Americans who are outraged at these excessive sentences and don't understand why Bush has not used his pardon power to commute the sentences of agents who were just doing their jobs.

It is as simple as it not being part of his agenda, he saves his powers for that which fits his agenda, not for what is in the best interest of America. Everyday I watch the news and everyday I am reminded that our President appears to becoming more and more like a dictator. Even the Republicans are steadily becoming more irritated with his lack of interest in listening to anyone.

This is happening because Bush does not believe in borders, or countries for that matter. All he sees is trade zones, capatilistic regions for making money for the giant conglomerate corporations. And it just so happens that old fashion things like borders and national sovereignty get in the way. And he won't let things like the Constitution, the will of the American people or Congress to get in his way, he will always do whatever he wants, becasue he thinks he knows what is best for us, we are just poor dumb slobs who need to be controlled and have our futures determined for us. We don't have the intelligence to decide for ourselves what kind of country we wish to have.

What do you expect from a person who never held a real job himself, who was raised with everything given to him by his family dynasty. Do you think he ever had to worry about finding a job, or paying for his own healthcare or heaven forbid where his next meal might come from? He has no concept of how real people exist, he thinks we are are all just little pieces on a chessboard he can move around at will, with no consequence to his own existence. If he hardly shows any concern for the thousands of young men and women he sends to die in battle, do you think he cares about the lives and futures of ordinary Americans?

Reptile09 wrote:

Do you think he ever had to worry about finding a job, or paying for his own healthcare or heaven forbid where his next meal might come from? He has no concept of how real people exist, he thinks we are are all just little pieces on a chessboard he can move around at will, with no consequence to his own existence. If he hardly shows any concern for the thousands of young men and women he sends to die in battle, do you think he cares about the lives and futures of ordinary Americans?

Well said Reptile, I think he has proven over and over that he cares very little about the lives and futures of ordinary Americans.

Yes Reptile. I agree - well said. Though I'm not sure it's that he thinks he knows what's best for us.....he cares nothing for people other than pleasing those who control him. We are just the worker bees to toil our lives away to serve his elitist friends and corporate masters.

I have been noticing in these past couple weeks, and even more so with what has gone on with our border patrol agents, that the Republicans in Congress are angry and in increasing revolt against Bush, his behavior, and policies. I hope this continues, and grows stronger so that by the time the immigration bill comes up for vote, the Republicans will be spitting nails and Bush won't have a single one (other than McCain) voting for his treacherous legislation.