Thread: Tancredo Visits Ex-Border Agent Beaten In Prison

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Feb 10, 2007 12:52 pm US/Mountain

Tancredo Visits Ex-Border Agent Beaten In Prison
(AP) YAZOO CITY, Miss. U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado met Friday with Ignacio Ramos at the prison where the former U.S. Border Patrol agent was attacked by other inmates.

Tancredo said he offered encouragement and campaigned to get Ramos a change of cells.

Ramos is serving time at Yazoo City Federal Correctional Complex for shooting a drug smuggling suspect in Texas and then lying about it.

"I gave him as much positive information as I could," Tancredo said after leaving the prison in Yazoo City, about 40 miles northeast of Jackson. "And it is our hope we can get him moved to another part of the facility that is safe for him but not in a segregated environment ... 23 hours a day in a cell, which he has now."

A Republican presidential candidate and opponent of illegal immigration, Tancredo has said the Bush administration failed to protect Ramos and has demanded that the agents receive a full presidential pardon.

The congressman said he was allowed to see the prison area where Ramos was beaten and had "observed bruises and abrasions on his body."

Tancredo, the founder and former chairman of the House Immigration Reform caucus, said Ramos had one bruise that "starts at the top of a shoulder and goes all the way to the elbow. It is very deep, a purplish, red, very deep bruise."

Before traveling to the prison that houses low- and medium-security inmates, the congressman said the Ramos family "has had to endure too much already for something as diminutive as a failure to report an incident. Sure it deserves punishment, but not one worse than some murderers."

Tancredo said after Friday's meeting he believed prison officials would move Ramos from isolation to better, but still safe, quarters elsewhere in the facility.

"I talked with the warden ... at great length and she was very accommodating," he said. "She said she would in fact request a new placement for him."

Tancredo said he understood a meeting would be held next Wednesday to consider the request.

Public information officials at the Yazoo City facility referred all questions to the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, which did not release any new information about a possible Ramos transfer.

Tancredo said he told Ramos that there had been vigils and other demonstrations of support for the agents and that "a lot of people were praying for him."

Prison officials on Tuesday confirmed the beating of Ramos, whose conviction along with that of fellow former agent Jose Alonso Compean drew sharp criticism from some who said the agents were merely doing their job defending the border against criminals.

A federal report was released Wednesday on the shootings, and Senate Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., agreed to allow Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, to hold a hearing on the case.

An Associated Press photographer from Jackson, at the prison Friday to take pictures of Tancredo, was told by a security officer that he had to surrender the digital disk in his camera before he would be allowed to leave the facility. Later, the photographer was allowed to leave with the digital images -- scenes of the exterior of the prison.

Ramos and Compean were convicted last year of shooting Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in 2005 at a rural area near El Paso, Texas, and then trying to cover up the incident. Davila was shot once in the buttocks.

In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, Rep. John Culberson, D-Texas, said Ramos and Compean "may not have followed proper procedure following the shooting, which at most should have resulted in their suspensions from the force, but not criminal procedure."

Ramos and Compean, who reported to prison in January, were each sentenced in October to more than a decade behind bars. Compean is serving his sentence at the Elkton Federal Correctional Institution, a low-security prison in Ohio. There have been no reports of problems with his detention.

Monica Ramos, the agent's wife, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he called her on his 38th birthday and said: "They got me. They got me good."

Monica Ramos said her husband described being attacked late Saturday, when he "let his guard down" and went to his bed. The attackers, she said, kicked and stomped him for several minutes before running away.

Ignacio Ramos was able to identify one man in the group and is now pursuing criminal charges, Monica Ramos said.
Local News > By Area Local Main Arvada Aurora Boulder Brighton Broomfield Castle Rock Centennial Commerce City Denver Federal Heights Golden Glendale Highlands Ranch Lafayette Lakewood Littleton Longmont Louisville Morrison Northglenn Parker Westminster Wheat Ridge
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Feb 10, 2007 12:52 pm US/Mountain

Tancredo Visits Ex-Border Agent Beaten In Prison
(AP) YAZOO CITY, Miss. U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado met Friday with Ignacio Ramos at the prison where the former U.S. Border Patrol agent was attacked by other inmates.

Tancredo said he offered encouragement and campaigned to get Ramos a change of cells.

Ramos is serving time at Yazoo City Federal Correctional Complex for shooting a drug smuggling suspect in Texas and then lying about it.

"I gave him as much positive information as I could," Tancredo said after leaving the prison in Yazoo City, about 40 miles northeast of Jackson. "And it is our hope we can get him moved to another part of the facility that is safe for him but not in a segregated environment ... 23 hours a day in a cell, which he has now."

A Republican presidential candidate and opponent of illegal immigration, Tancredo has said the Bush administration failed to protect Ramos and has demanded that the agents receive a full presidential pardon.

The congressman said he was allowed to see the prison area where Ramos was beaten and had "observed bruises and abrasions on his body."

Tancredo, the founder and former chairman of the House Immigration Reform caucus, said Ramos had one bruise that "starts at the top of a shoulder and goes all the way to the elbow. It is very deep, a purplish, red, very deep bruise."

Before traveling to the prison that houses low- and medium-security inmates, the congressman said the Ramos family "has had to endure too much already for something as diminutive as a failure to report an incident. Sure it deserves punishment, but not one worse than some murderers."

Tancredo said after Friday's meeting he believed prison officials would move Ramos from isolation to better, but still safe, quarters elsewhere in the facility.

"I talked with the warden ... at great length and she was very accommodating," he said. "She said she would in fact request a new placement for him."

Tancredo said he understood a meeting would be held next Wednesday to consider the request.

Public information officials at the Yazoo City facility referred all questions to the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, which did not release any new information about a possible Ramos transfer.

Tancredo said he told Ramos that there had been vigils and other demonstrations of support for the agents and that "a lot of people were praying for him."

Prison officials on Tuesday confirmed the beating of Ramos, whose conviction along with that of fellow former agent Jose Alonso Compean drew sharp criticism from some who said the agents were merely doing their job defending the border against criminals.

A federal report was released Wednesday on the shootings, and Senate Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., agreed to allow Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, to hold a hearing on the case.

An Associated Press photographer from Jackson, at the prison Friday to take pictures of Tancredo, was told by a security officer that he had to surrender the digital disk in his camera before he would be allowed to leave the facility. Later, the photographer was allowed to leave with the digital images -- scenes of the exterior of the prison.

Ramos and Compean were convicted last year of shooting Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in 2005 at a rural area near El Paso, Texas, and then trying to cover up the incident. Davila was shot once in the buttocks.

In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, Rep. John Culberson, D-Texas, said Ramos and Compean "may not have followed proper procedure following the shooting, which at most should have resulted in their suspensions from the force, but not criminal procedure."

Ramos and Compean, who reported to prison in January, were each sentenced in October to more than a decade behind bars. Compean is serving his sentence at the Elkton Federal Correctional Institution, a low-security prison in Ohio. There have been no reports of problems with his detention.

Monica Ramos, the agent's wife, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he called her on his 38th birthday and said: "They got me. They got me good."

Monica Ramos said her husband described being attacked late Saturday, when he "let his guard down" and went to his bed. The attackers, she said, kicked and stomped him for several minutes before running away.

Ignacio Ramos was able to identify one man in the group and is now pursuing criminal charges, Monica Ramos said.

as more and more comes out, this appears to be a complete mistake and that the border agents should be released and that bush and his friends should be made to pay these gentlemen for pain and suffering. More than the $5M being given to the drug smuggler. These border agents have really suffered due to our president. There is no way that Bush was not involved in this. Sutton is to good a friend of his.