Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal of Former Border Patrol Agents

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from two former Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a fleeing drug smuggler and trying to cover it up.

The high court refused to consider an appeal from Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.

The former agents were convicted in 2006 of shooting Osvaldo Aldrete Davila near El Paso on the Texas-Mexico border. Investigators said the agents never reported the shooting and tried to cover it up by picking up several spent gun shells.

Both former agents said they thought Aldrete was armed.

Their conviction had been affirmed by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. They served two years in prison before getting their 10-year sentences commuted by President George W. Bush.

 

Border agents celebrate homecoming

INVASION USA

Posted: February 17, 2009
8:31 pm Eastern

 

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

 Former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean left their cells in solitary confinement to reunite with their families in El Paso, Texas, today.

“He said, ‘I love you.’ And he just embraced me,” Monica Ramos said on Fox News’ Glenn Beck television show today in the first interview following their release.

After serving two years in federal prison in solitary confinement for shooting a fleeing Mexican drug smuggler who had brought 750 pounds of marijuana into the U.S., Ramos and Compean are being released into home confinement until March 20. The news came only two weeks after the Federal Bureau of Prisons told WND they could be eligible to finish sentences at home.

The Bureau of Prisons has instructed them to wear ankle bracelets and refrain from speaking to the press until their official release date.

“It was wonderful,” Ramos said of her exciting day. “It’s gone by pretty fast, so we can only hope the next 33 days go as fast.”

Ramos said their children are “extremely excited” about seeing their father.

“They had a couple of minutes with their father, here,” she said. “It’s really overwhelming for them. They finally hugged their dad, and they know it’s real. In time, I think we’ll begin the healing process.”

She said her husband looked relieved when she first saw him in the airport.

“He just looked around, just very appreciative, looking around and just absorbing the environment that he was in.”

Patty Compean told the Glenn Beck television show that her family needed time to spend with Jose before participating in interviews.

“They’ve been in solitary confinement without any human contact except for the guards and visitors for two years,” Patty Compean told WND when she first learned of the commutation. “Things have changed. Jose’s been gone for two years. That’s a lot to take in.”

Several media personalities asked to witness the homecoming, including Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, but Patty said her family is not ready for the crowd.

“Everybody has contributed in one way or another to this,” she told WND. “Honestly, at this point, I’d love to have people there, but at the same time, I want to have that moment for us. It’s been two years.”

Ramos’s attorney, David Botsford, said the families are still waiting for a decision from the Supreme Court on the cases.

“We’ve asked the Supreme Court to review the convictions on the remaining counts that the Fifth Circuit had not set aside because it’s our goal to vindicate these gentlemen entirely and get them back on the job with law enforcement , which is what their dreams and their goals and their careers have been.” 

Beck asked why Ramos would ever consider returning to law enforcement positions when the government “sold him down the river.”

“Well, he may not trust his government, but he loves his country,” Botsford replied. “He wants to serve, as he has done with honor and distinction in the past. And that’s what his career aspirations are and hopefully we’ll get them both back to that spot if that’s what they so desire.”

In the interview with Beck, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, summarized a number of falsehoods Congress had been told about the border agents’ case.

“We were told that these two border agents went out that day to shoot an illegal, which is an absolute lie,” he said. “We were also told that they knew that the drug dealer was unarmed. That is a lie. They both believed him to be armed. But, most importantly, the U.S. attorney’s office told us … that the drug dealer didn’t bring in drugs a second time. … I figured out that was a lie, too.”

He continued, “Both these individuals were political prisoners. We want to get to the bottom of what the involvement of the Mexican government was in prosecuting these two guys. ”

Poe said he believes that there’s a real problem on both sides of the border and that this was the only case where the U.S. attorney’s office went on a “nationwide Madison Avenue PR stunt” to justify prosecution.

“It just seems like there’s a rat in the room,” Poe said. “And we want to get rid of it.”

Bush Commutes Sentences of Border Patrol Officers

Posted: January 19, 2009
1:01 pm Eastern

© 2009 WorldNetDaily

 Officers To Be released on March 20, 2009

 

President Bush commuted the prison sentences of former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean today.

The announcement came on the last full day of Bush’s presidency. The sentences for Ramos and Compean are scheduled to expire March 20 but there was no immediate explanation for the time period between today’s announcement and that date.

Two years ago, Ramos and Compean began serving sentences of 11- and 12- years respectively for a 2005 incident in which they fired on a drug smuggler as he fled back into Mexico after bringing 750 pounds of marijuana into the U.S. near Fabens, Texas. As WND reported last week, the Department of Justice’s pardon attorney, Ronald Rogers, opened a file on the case and was considering recommending that the president commute the sentences.

 

Rogers said at the time the former agents apparently were not eligible for a pardon, which would nullify the punishment. But they might be eligible for a commutation, he said, which would result in a reduction of their sentences.

“Thank God for this commutation,” said Joseph Farah, editor of WND, who launched a petition and letter-writing campaign that re-energized the Ramos-Compean issue in the last 30 days of Bush’s term. “This will end the sleepless nights for their wives and children. This is the first step toward making these families whole, again.”

His petition collected more than 40,000 signatures by the time today’s announcement was made, and the letter campaign produced more than 3,000 FedEx letters to the White House.

“We can only thank Joseph Farah, Jerome Corsi and the staff at WorldNetDaily because from the beginning you have been with us and you never gave up on the case,” Joe Loya, Ramos’ father-in-law, said today. “Your reporting had a lot to do with the decision today by President Bush to commute the sentences.”

The petition had described how the agents “are now serving outrageously long prison terms for shooting and wounding, in the line of duty, a fleeing illegal alien drug smuggler trying to bring almost 800 pounds of marijuana into the U.S.”

The smuggler was granted immunity for his illegal activities in return for testifying against the agents. After the trial, it was revealed the smuggler participated in another drug run into the U.S. while he held immunity.

The law under which the agents were ordered to serve minimum 10-year sentences for using a firearm in the commission of a crime never had been applied to law enforcement officers.

Monica Ramos embraces her husband, former U.S. Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos, two days before he was sentenced to 11 years in prison (Courtesy El Paso Times

Farah’s letter also noted several jurors complained they had been intimidated into voting “guilty” while they actually believed Ramos and Compean were innocent, yet the trial judge refused to set aside the verdict.

Among other factors raising public concern was the prosecutor’s statement that the sentences were too harsh.

The agents had attracted the support of a members of Congress, too. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., recently asked U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, the prosecutor in the case, to support a commutation in their sentences.

“As Johnny Sutton said in his own words, this punishment is excessive,” Rohrabacher said. “Millions of Americans, members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats have spoken.”

“It becomes a debate about punishment,” Sutton said on the CNN Headline News Glenn Beck Program May 18, 2007. “I have a lot of sympathy for those who say, look, punishment is too high, you know, 10 years. I agree.”

More than 150 members of the House of Representatives, including both Democrats and Republicans, have signed onto various resolutions in support of either a full pardon or a commutation of sentence for Ramos and Compean.

On the Senate side, John Cornyn, R-Texas, had released an open letter to the president pleading for their freedom. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., also joined the effort.

The burden of the sentences fell heavily on the families of the agents. Ramos wife, Monica, reported just this month that there was an attempted hit on her life and that of her children when someone broke into their El Paso home and filled it with gas, trashing photographs and pummeling their dog.

The attackers, while she was away, stole various items, ripped cherished wedding pictures and family photographs and even left the gas turned on.

“It was very intentional in that somebody was trying to hurt us,” she said on a radio program.

“He’s in there because he was stopping a drug smuggler,” she said. “And yet my kids have to go through an extensive search when we see him. … We’re not able to have any physical contact with him while we’re there.”

In a special letter released to WND before the commutation was announced, Compean thanked his supporters, especially for the cards and letters during his incarceration.

He said he feared being forgotton.

“I truly believed people would forget all about us. Once we reported to prison, I was very happy to see how wrong I was. I have received thousands of letters from people all over the country. I have also received letters from other countries such as Italy and even a few from soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

US Military Warning: Mexican Law Enforcement, Justice Systems May Collapse

Posted: January 15, 2009
12:00 am Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

 

Mexican army parades in Mexico City

Mexico is one of two countries marked for “a rapid and sudden collapse,” according to a Joint Operating Environment 2008 report on worldwide security threats prepared by the U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va.

The report states “the Mexican government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels.”

The report is yet another indication the Bush administration sees the escalation of drug war violence in Mexico as a serious threat. Washington fears the war not only could spill over into the U.S., but also threaten the political stability of the government of President Felipe Calderon.

“How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state,” the report says. “Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone.”

(Story continues below)

Adm. John Richardson, director for strategy and policy at Joint Forces Command, emphasized in an interview with WND that the aim of the report is not to make predictions.

“We go to great pains in this report to say it is not predictive and that it is hard to predict the future,” he said. “So, while we don’t have a crystal ball, we have to try to open up a discussion among senior leaders about the future so we are not caught unprepared for the potential trends we see out there.”

Richardson explained the report is a statement of worst-case scenarios that might face the U.S. military in the future.

“The report is designed to stimulate discussion among leaders aimed at the Joint Force commander,” he said. “The JOE 2008 is a think-piece that is not predictive and it is not a policy document. It is a problem statement identifying national security demands we believe the Joint Force faces at an operational level.”

WND reported yesterday that the Department of Homeland Security has developed contingency plans involving U.S. Northern Command to deploy the U.S. military to protect American citizens in the event Mexico’s drug war spills across the border.

Discussing the plans, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff noted that criminal activity in Mexico caused more than 5,300 deaths last year. The DHS contingency plans, he said, were ordered to prepare for a spillover of the type of violence in Mexico that has killed members of warring drug cartels, law enforcement officers and civilians.

Richardson said he was aware of the DHS contingency planning.

“This is exactly why we write the Joint Operation Environment, to give commands like Northern Command, as well as the other combatant commands, something to think about in maximizing their preparedness,” he said.

WND also has reported on the “Merida Initiative” under which the U.S. Congress at the strong urging of the Bush administration allocated in December $197 million of the $500 million authorized under a planned $1.6 billion program. The program aims to provide U.S. military assistance in the form of training and equipment to the Mexican military to help it combat the drug cartels.

Earlier in 2008, Congress funded $99 million under the Merida Initiative to Mexico through the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

Richardson indicated the Joint Forces Command has not played a direct role in the Merida Initiative.

“The U.S. Joint Forces Command is a functional combatant command that supports USNORTHCOM and all the other combatant commands in a variety of ways, starting with development of future concepts, with our JOE 2008 being one of the most futuristic documents,” he emphasized.

“The JOE 2008 is a futuristic document looking eight to 25 years out, and we refine these concepts through experimentation and war games, so that the ideas which survive the refinement process are integrated into the larger picture of a capability development within the various combatant commands of the U.S. military,” Richardson said.

“We start with concepts and then refine those, with the goal of capabilities development and integrating across the services into a multi-national and coalitions-type of environment, so the concepts will work with everyone we potentially partner with.”

“As the capabilities are further developed, the time-line draws into more of the current situation where we provide training of joint force headquarters and provide joint force training, where we ultimately put together teams to respond to needs.”

In his 90-minute meeting in Washington with Calderon last week, President-elect Obama expressed his continued support for continuing the Merida Initiative.

WND has also reported that federal Border Patrol agents along the southern border with Mexico have been increasingly reluctant to fire their weapons against drug dealers after Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos were convicted and sentenced to prison for a 2005 incident. The two agents fired on a drug smuggler as he fled back into Mexico after bringing 750 pounds of marijuana into the U.S. near Fabens, Texas.

Mexico’s escalating drug violence adds political pressure to the stability of the Calderon government at a time when the country faces increasing unemployment as NAFTA exports to the U.S. have declined in the current recession.

Calderon was elected in September 2006 when Mexican courts declared him the winner after more than two months of uncertainty. Left presidential rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador claimed voting irregularities had stolen for Calderon a narrow victory by 233,831 votes of the 41.6 million cast.

Under Mexican law, Calderon cannot be re-elected after serving his six-year term as president.