Why wasn’t this U.S. attorney fired?

The White House and the Justice Department should have added Johnny Sutton to the list of federal prosecutors to be fired.

Sutton is the U.S. attorney in west Texas. For five years he has been the top federal lawman in one of the nation's busiest regions, a job he secured with deep ties to President Bush and Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales.

But in those five years, he’s conducted a campaign against law enforcement officers, especially Border Patrol agents. They include:

• Border Patrol Agent Gary M. Brugman, sentenced to two years in prison for shoving an illegal alien to the ground. The use of force was in accordance with his training, he said, and the migrant was not injured.


• Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, sentenced to more than decade-long prison terms for shooting a drug smuggler suspect in the buttocks after he abandoned 743 pounds of marijuana on the border.


• Border Patrol Agent Noe Aleman, convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States for trying to adopt three teenage girls from Mexico and harboring them in his home. The girls were his wife's nieces and Texas officials had approved the adoption.


• Edwards County, Texas, Deputy Sheriff Guillermo "Gilmer" Hernandez, sentenced to a year in prison for shooting at a truck loaded with illegal aliens after the driver tried to run him down.

Ramos and Compean were sentenced in October, just as the White House was preparing to fire eight other federal prosecutors. The parallel events have left many disappointed that Sutton was not terminated too.

'Johnny Sutton has lied to the American people,' Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntingon Beach) proclaimed in a House floor speech in March. 'Sutton prosecuted the good guys and gave immunity to the bad guys.'

Illegal used stolen ID to get a driver’s license, a job, checking accounts and mortgages

An illegal alien bought a stolen Social Security number 20 years ago in California, moved to Illinois. He used the card to get a job and a driver’s license, to open checking accounts, to take out two mortgages and even to file bankruptcy.

But his string of luck ran out, and Francisco G. Maldonado, 39, was charged with financial identity theft and possession of a fictitious identification card. Maldonado even gave the stolen Social Security number to police booking officers several times while he was being arrested.

The woman whose Social Security number was stolen had filed several police reports, and had talked to credit and collection agencies, eventually learning the address Maldonado was using in Illinois.
When he was arrested, Maldonado had an Illinois driver’s license, a department store credit card, a bank statement, checks with his name imprinted on them and a Blue Cross insurance card. But he told police he was unable to post a $15,000 bond, and was taken to jail.

Texas seafood company faces $500,000 fine; its president faces jail and fine

This time, the federal investigators and the courts got it right. Clifforn Hillman, 64, president of one of Texas' largest wholesale seafood businesses, faces six months in jail and a $3,000 fine after pleading guilty in federal court to hiring illegal aliens after helping them fake social security.

But his company, Hillman's Shrimp and Oyster Co., faces a whopping fine of up to $500,000 for helping illegal aliens get work visas and tutoring illegal employees on how to create false identities to keep their jobs. Along with two employees, Hillman pleaded guilty this week in Galveston U.S. court to one misdemeanor count each of conspiracy to hire undocumented aliens. The company entered a guilty plea to a felony charge of conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens.

An investigation by federal agencies revealed the Hillman company engaged in a scheme to employ illegal aliens.