Senate hearing generates bipartisan effort to free Ramos and Compean

With a firearms law designed for drug kingpins, two former Border Patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, were sentenced in 2006 to an extra decade in prison for firing their guns at a Mexican drug smuggler. At a Senate Judiciary hearing this week, senators from both parties decried the use of that provision against law enforcement officers.

The former agents are serving 11- and 12-year terms, while the smuggler remains free, having cut a deal to testify against them. Senators also vented their dismay at West Texas U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, a Bush appointee who has caught unrelenting grief from anti-illegal immigrant activists over his handling of the case. "This really is a case of prosecutorial overreaction," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who chaired the hearing. "This was still a drug dealer who was shot fleeing. Shot in the rear end fleeing. He wasn't an innocent person."

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Tex., a 26-year Border Patrol veteran, also joined the effort this week, pressing President Bush to commute the sentences of the two. Reyes said that even though he had supported the agent's conviction, the sentence is too harsh. "This penalty levied on these agents is excessive and ... they deserve the immediate exercise of your executive clemency powers," Senators Feinstein and Cornyn wrote to the President.

Letters to the president have been a blessing for the two affected families, but Bush may not support the requests. "The president has proven with Libby that he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants," said Patty Compean, whose husband is in an Elkton, Ohio, prison. "There's no due process with him. My husband was doing his job. I don't think Libby was."

Plight of Agents Ramos and Compean featured on “America’s Most Wanted”

On February 3 the plight of former Border Patrol agents Jose compean and Ignacio Ramos was the feature subject on national television’s “America’s Most Wanted.”

Their confrontation with an illegal alien drug smuggler crossing the border with a van loaded with 800 lb. of marijuana was related. TJ Bonner, President of the National Border Patrol Council, described the drug smuggler’s gunshot wound as consistent, he said, with someone taking the “bladed stance,” someone firing a gun in his left hand. The smuggler is, in fact, left handed.

According to the National Border Patrol Council, "three of the twelve jurors later submitted sworn affidavits alleging that they had been misled into believing that there could be no dissent in the decision of the jury, and that the minority would have to accede to the will of the majority.”

The U.S. Attorney, the program said, offered conflicting information. When asked why Aldrete-Davila wasn't charged with any crime, he said that because of the border agents’ actions, there was no evidence to charge the alleged drug smuggler. Moments earlier, he admitted that Aldrete-Davila's van was found with a large quantity of marijuana.

“America’s Most Wanted” concluded that Ramos and Compean did make mistakes, and should have receive some punishment. “But their 11 and 12 year sentences are forcing Border Patrol agents and law enforcement in general to question everything they do, to the detriment of our safety.”

Border Patrol find 1,600 lbs. of pot in truck abandoned at Cabeza Prieta national refuge

Border Patrol agents working at a remote campsite in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge this week found more than 1,600 pounds of marijuana in an abandoned truck.

Late one evening, Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue agents spotted tire tracks near the boundary of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and Cabeza Prieta, said the Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.

They notified agents working at Camp Grip, 60 miles southwest of Ajo where agents stay for about seven days at a time. The agents followed the tracks and found 354 bundles of marijuana inside an abandoned 2005 Ford F-250 pickup truck that had been reported stolen in California.

The 1,627 pounds of marijuana has an estimated value of $1.627 million.