Illegal Immigration, Talk Radio, Ignacio Ramos, Jose Alonso Compean

SEEKING JUSTICE

For Wrongly Convicted Border Agents, Talkers Fight Battle







Certain that two border patrol agents have wrongly been convicted of crimes related to their duties, radio talk show hosts across the country have been fighting an ongoing battle to get them out of prison.

And for their efforts to secure the release of former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean (shown in right image), talkers are taking a lot of heat, especially from the "open borders" crowd.

In addition, America's Most Wanted has also taken up the cause, detailing not only the grave injustice behind the convictions, but also the recent brutal beating of Ramos in prison.

Ramos and Compean were found guilty of shooting a suspected drug smuggler and are now serving lengthy sentences. From last October, here's a background piece at WorldNetDaily.


This week, as a growing movement emerges to secure their early releases, perhaps via presidential pardons, the troubling circumstances behind their imprisonment are back in the spotlight.

From Cox News Service, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Eunice Moscoso
Cox News Service

Washington - Former Border Patrol agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos have become famous in conservative circles, in a case which shows the power of talk radio and the blogosphere.

The two agents are serving prison sentences after being convicted of shooting a suspected drug smuggler and trying to cover up the incident. Many lawmakers in Washington are asking President Bush to pardon the agents, who they say were convicted wrongly for protecting the border of the United States against criminal intruders.

The agents were sentenced to 12 and 11 years in prison, respectively.

The calls for an executive pardon and a congressional investigation into the case intensified this week following reports that Ramos was assaulted in a Mississippi prison.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado, an ardent critic of illegal immigration who is pondering a run for the White House, spent about an hour with Ramos at the jail on Friday and said he had been severely beaten, with deep bruises along his arm, cuts and bruises on his chest and back, and bruises on his knees.

Ramos told the lawmaker that he had been pummeled and kicked by five or six inmates on Saturday in a planned attack while others watched after they saw him on an episode of the television show America's Most Wanted, Tancredo said. Ramos did not get medical attention until Monday and a CAT-scan showed no brain damage, the lawmaker added.

"This guy should never be walking around in an orange jumpsuit with handcuffs, he should be home with his family," Tancredo said, shortly after leaving the prison. "This is a horrible travesty."

Ramos' attorney, David L. Botsford, said that a motion is pending at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to get bail for Ramos while he plans an appeal.

A similar request was rejected by a district court, said Botsford, a prominent criminal defense attorney in Austin.

The plight of the two Border Patrol officers has become a major cause on conservative talk shows and on Web sites that promote more enforcement against illegal immigration.

The suspected drug smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, had entered the United States illegally in a van that contained more than 700 pounds of marijuana. The prosecution contends that Compean shot at him 14 times and Ramos fired once, hitting Aldrete-Davila in the buttocks as he tried to run away on foot.

The agents contend that they saw an object in Aldrete-Davila's hands that looked like a gun and that he was pointing it towards them.

Ramos and Compean were convicted a year ago on several charges including assault with a deadly weapon and intentionally defacing a crime scene.

Aldrete-Davila was given immunity in the case to testify against the agents and has filed a multi- million dollar lawsuit against the U.S. government.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said this week that "the sentences in this case are too extreme given the criminal nature of the defendant and his possession of large quantities of drugs."

In a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, she also said that the "aggressive prosecution of Border Patrol agents has a chilling effect on their ability to carry out their duties and on the morale of all agents."

Keeping in mind the final two paragraphs above, now take a look at this new anti- Ramos and Compean hit piece by syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette Jr:

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- The world is upside down. A posse of Republican lawmakers who, when opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants, like to talk about how rules must be followed and how we shouldn't reward lawbreakers. They're now demanding that a pair of convicted felons be rewarded with a presidential pardon.

Ex-Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos were sentenced to 12 years and 11 years in prison, respectively, after a jury convicted them of shooting an unarmed suspect and then covering it up.

It happened on February 17, 2005. That's when Compean and Ramos encountered a suspicious van along the Texas-Mexico border.

The driver, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, abandoned the vehicle and tried to run into Mexico. Aldrete-Davila was smuggling drugs, and the van was loaded with more than 700 pounds of marijuana.

Compean fired at least 14 rounds and Ramos fired once, hitting Aldrete-Davila. The agents then collected the shell casings, failed to report the shooting, and filed reports that made no mention of the incident.

None of this is heroic, except to the anti-immigrant mob, which has been making excuses for Compean and Ramos while accusing U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, whose office prosecuted the case, of being an agent of the Mexican government.

In recent months, the cause of Compean and Ramos has been picked up by anti-immigrant groups, congressional Republicans, Minuteman vigilantes and talk show hosts on radio and television.

Recently, Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Richard L. Skinner admitted that officials in his office "misinformed" Republican members of Congress when they claimed to have proof that Compean and Ramos confessed their guilt and said that they "wanted to shoot some Mexicans" before the incident.

But what does all this have to do with the price of whiskey in West Texas? Not a thing. It was the U.S. attorney's office, and not the Homeland Security Department, that brought this case. So, unless federal prosecutors lied to the court or defense attorneys, there is no reason for a pardon.

I've spoken to Sutton twice in the last couple of weeks, and he didn't strike me as some wild-eyed prosecutor. He insists that a lot of what is out there is "overheated rhetoric" from the ill-informed.

Much of that rhetoric belongs to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-California, (or as he is aptly described in this case, Dana "off-his-rocker"). The congressman has said that President Bush could be impeached if either Ramos or Compean meets his demise in prison.

Another California Republican, Rep. Duncan Hunter has drafted a congressional resolution to grant a pardon for the convicted shooters and he "personally contacted" the Federal Bureau of Prisons to ask that the former agents be segregated from the general inmate population for their safety, according to his Web site.

As his name gets dragged through the mud, you'd think that Sutton might hold a grudge. Not so.

"I have a lot of sympathy for some of the folks who are worked up because the narrative that they read is so different from the reality of what the jury heard," Sutton told me.

But what about those unsympathetic Republican hacks, Minutemen vigilantes and conservative bloggers who are using this case to further their own agendas? For Sutton, it's a reminder that there is no substitute for the American justice system. While not perfect, that system is designed to dole out justice based on facts and law, not politics.

"It's why we litigate these things in a courtroom and not on cable television or the Internet," he said.

Be glad that's so.

Obviously, Navarrette is attempting to mislead his readers into believing this is a cause only for the extreme right. Yet the Cox story quoted US Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat who has raised substantial concerns about the way Ramos and Compean have been treated by prosecutors and the justice system.

So why does Navarrette want two border patrol agents with distinguished records to rot in jail while a drug smuggler sues American taxpayers? That's one bizarre agenda.


ELSEWHERE: at SaveWRKO, we compare today's press coverage of Tommy Tune- Out's debut.


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Technorati tags: talk radio Ignacio Ramos conviction Jose Alonso Compean conviction America\'s Most Wanted CNN border patrol illegal immigration drug smuggler Ruben Navarrette Jr

Navarrette image: CNN, Incident scene: AMW