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US Border Patrol Action Alert!
8/7/2006

Posted on 08/08/2006 6:59:51 PM PDT by Ladycalif

US Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos attorney is Mary Stillinger (article at the end of this email)

http://www.marystillingerlaw.com/index.jsp

(915) 544-0415

I just spoke with Attorney Mary Stillinger's legal assistant, Ruth.

She said that the U.S. Border Patrol Agents are scheduled for their sentencing on August 22nd.

Ruth said IF WE SEND LETTERS stating the border patrol agents have been wrongly accused THAT ATTORNEY MARY STILLINGER CAN USE OUR LETTERS WHEN SHE GOES BEFORE THE JUDGE on August 22nd.

Letters could be helpful for both the sentencing and the appeal in this case, she said.

I have been researching this issue - I will get various other contact info to you later as well.

I told the legal assistant I had called the White House and the woman who answered the phone knew of the case because of the phone calls - she told me to include that fact in the letter.

EMAIL or FAX your letters!!!

Email: Stillingerlaw@sbcglobal.net

Fax: 915.775.1337

ARTICLE: http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_4141562

*Breaking the silence Convicted border agent tells his story By Sara A. Carter, Staff Writer

For More Info

• Border Patrol penalty list

EL PASO, Texas - Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos could hear his heart racing. He could feel the dry, hot dust burning against his skin as he chased a drug trafficker trying to flee back into Mexico.

Ramos' fellow agent, Jose Alonso Compean, was lying on the ground behind him, banged up and bloody from a scuffle with the much-bigger smuggler moments earlier.

Suddenly the smuggler turned toward the pursuing Ramos, gun in hand. Ramos, his own weapon already drawn, shot at him, though the man was able to flee into the brush and escape the agents.

Now, nearly 18 months after that violent encounter, Ramos and Compean are facing 20 years in federal prison for their actions.

Why?

According to the U.S. attorney who successfully prosecuted the agents, the man they were chasing didn't actually have a gun, shooting him in the back violated his civil rights, the agents didn't know for a fact that he was a drug smuggler, and they broke Border Patrol rules about discharging their weapons and preserving a crime scene.

Even more broadly, Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof said, Ramos and Compean had no business chasing someone in the first place.

"It is a violation of Border Patrol regulations to go after someone who is fleeing," she said. "The Border Patrol pursuit policy prohibits the pursuit of someone."

Her arguments, along with testimony from other agents on the scene and that of the smuggler himself, swayed a jury. It was a crushing blow to Compean and Ramos, both of whom had pursued suspects along the border as a regular part of their job.

It also appears to fly in the face of the Border Patrol's own edicts, which include "detouring illegal entries through improved enforcement" and "apprehending and detouring smugglers of humans, drugs and other contraband."

The smuggler was given full immunity to testify against the agents and complete medical care at William Beaumont Army Medical Center, in El Paso.

Neither Ramos nor Compean had granted an interview in the almost 18

months since the shooting. Compean's attorneys have told him to not speak to anyone about the case.

But Ramos and his family say they no longer can be silent.

"They don't throw this many charges at guys they've caught with over 2,000 pounds of marijuana," Ramos said. "There's murderers and child rapists that are looking at less time than me.

"I am not guilty. I did not do what they're accusing me of."

SPEAKING OUT Ramos, 37, and Compean, 28, are set to be sentenced Aug. 22 for shooting Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, a Mexican citizen, on Feb. 17, 2005, in the small Texas town of Fabens, about 40 miles south east of El Paso.

A Texas jury convicted the pair of assault with serious bodily injury; assault with a deadly weapon; discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence; and a civil rights violation. Compean and Ramos also were convicted of four counts and two counts, respectively, of obstruction of justice for not reporting that their weapons had been fired.

The jury acquitted both men of assault with intent to commit murder.

But the conviction for discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence requires a minimum 10-year prison sentence. The sentences for the other convictions vary.

On July 25, the El Paso U.S. Probation Office recommended to Judge Kathleen Cardone that each man get 20 years.

Ramos, an eight-year veteran of the U.S. Naval Reserve and a former nominee for Border Patrol Agent of the Year, now has but one thing on his mind: What will happen to his wife and three young sons if he spends the next two decades in prison?

"It's (with) a leap of faith and my devotion to God that me and my family will make it through this," Ramos said as he looked at his wife, Monica, during an exclusive interview with the Daily Bulletin this past month in El Paso.

Two things were clear throughout the interview: Ramos is convinced he was simply doing his job when Aldrete-Davila was shot, and he is perplexed as to why he and his partner are being punished so severely.

IGNACIO'S STORY Here's Ramos' version of what happened that day:

On Feb. 17, 2005, Compean was monitoring the south side of a levee road near the Rio Grande on the U.S.-Mexico border in Fabens when he spotted a suspicious van driving down the north end of the road. He called for backup.

Ramos headed to Fabens, where he thought he could intercept the van at one of only two roads leading in and out of the small town.

Another agent was already following the van -- with Aldrete-Davila at the wheel -- when Ramos arrived.

Ramos and the other agent followed the van through the center of town until it turned back toward the Rio Grande, which marks the border between Mexico and the United States. Aldrete-Davila, unable to outrun the agents, stopped his van on a levee, got out and started running. Compean was waiting for him on the other side of the levee.

"We both yelled out for him to stop, but he wouldn't stop, and he just kept running," Ramos said.

Aldrete-Davila made his way through a canal, and Ramos could hear Compean yelling for Aldrete-Davila to stop, he said.

"At some point during the time where I'm crossing the canal, I hear shots being fired," Ramos said. "Later, I see Compean on the ground, but I keep running after the smuggler."

Through the thick dust, Ramos watched as Aldrete-Davila turned toward him, pointing what appeared to be a gun.

"I shot," he said. "But I didn't think he was hit, because he kept running into the brush and then disappeared into it. Later, we all watched as he jumped into a van waiting for him. He seemed fine. It didn't look like he had been hit at all."

Seven other agents were on the scene by that time. Compean had already picked up his shell casings. Ramos did not, though he failed to report the shooting.

"The supervisors knew that shots were fired," Ramos said. "Since nobody was injured or hurt, we didn't file the report. That's the only thing I would've done different."

The van later was found to have about 800 pounds of marijuana inside.

A DIFFERENT TAKE The version of events presented by the U.S. Attorney's Office during the agents' trial differed markedly from Ramos'.

"The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it is a violation of someone's Fourth Amendment rights to shoot them in the back while fleeing if you don't know who they are and/or if you don't know they have a weapon," said Kanof, the assistant U.S. attorney.

Ramos testified during the trial that he saw Aldrete-Davila with something "shiny" in his hand, she said, and though Ramos told the Daily Bulletin he thought it was a gun, he couldn't be sure, she said.

Moreover, the agents "did not know who this individual was or what he had in the van," Kanof said. "They just decided or guessed."

She then reiterated her contention that pursuing Aldrete-Davila or anyone else fleeing border agents is not part of the Border Patrol's job.

"Agents are not allowed to pursue. In order to exceed the speed limit, you have to get supervisor approval, and they did not," she said.

The prosecutor also said the men destroyed the crime scene when Compean picked up his shell casings and attempted to cover up their actions by not reporting they'd fired their weapons.

PUZZLING ARGUMENT Ramos said his pursuit of Aldrete-Davila was nothing different from what he's done in the past 10 years as a Border Patrol agent.

"How are we supposed to follow the Border Patrol strategy of apprehending terrorists or drug smugglers if we are not supposed to pursue fleeing people?" he continued. "Everybody who's breaking the law flees from us. What are we supposed to do? Do they want us to catch them or not?"

Ramos also said that both supervisors who were at the scene knew shots had been fired but did not file reports.

"You need to tell a supervisor because you can't assume that a supervisor knows about it," Kanof countered. "You have to report any discharge of a firearm."

Mary Stillinger, Ramos' attorney, and Maria Ramirez, Compean's attorney, said during the trial that every other Border Patrol agent at the scene also failed to report shots had been fired.

"Every single witness has a reason to lie," Ramirez said, referring to the immunity granted to Aldrete-Davila and the other agents in exchange for testifying against Ramos and Compean.

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Table of Offenses and Penalties, failure to report that a weapon has been fired in the line of duty is punishable by a five-day suspension.

Ramos also is puzzled as to why, more than two weeks after the shooting, a Department of Homeland Security investigator -- acting on a tip from a Border Patrol agent in Arizona -- tracked down Aldrete-Davila in Mexico, offering him immunity if he testified against the agents who shot at him.

Why the agent tipped Homeland Security to the smuggler's whereabouts is partly explained in a confidential Homeland Security memo obtained by the Daily Bulletin. Why the department and the U.S. Attorney's Office in El Paso pursued the matter so aggressively is less clear.

"Osbaldo (Aldrete-Davila) had told (Border Patrol agent) Rene Sanchez that his friends had told him they should put together a hunting party and go shoot some BP agents in revenge for them shooting Osbaldo," reads a memo written by Christopher Sanchez, an investigator with the department's Office of Inspector General. "Osbaldo advised Rene Sanchez that he told his friends he was not interested in going after the BP agents and getting in more trouble."

Neither Rene Sanchez nor Christopher Sanchez could be reached for comment. Mike Friels, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection branch of the Department of Homeland Security, said he could not comment on the case, citing pending litigation.

BEHIND THE SCENES In the same Homeland Security memo, Christopher Sanchez outlines how the investigation into Ramos and Compean was initiated.

On March 10, 2005, Christopher Sanchez received a telephone call from Border Patrol agent Rene Sanchez of Wilcox, Ariz., who told the agent about Aldrete-Davila's encounter with Ramos and Compean.

According to the document, Rene Sanchez stated "that Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila's mother, Marcadia Aldrete-Davila, contacted Rene Sanchez's mother-in-law, Gregoria Toquinto, and advised her about the BP agents shooting Aldrete-Davila. Toquinto told her son-in-law, Rene Sanchez, of the incident, and he spoke to Osbaldo via a telephone call."

During the trial, the connection between Rene Sanchez and Aldrete-Davila confused the Ramos family, and "we questioned how an agent from Arizona would know or want to defend a drug smuggler from Mexico," said Monica Ramos.

Kanof bristled when asked about the Rene Sanchez/Aldrete-Davila connection.

"It's an unconscionable accusation that Sanchez is associated with a drug dealer," she said. "Most BP agents who are Hispanic have family from Mexico. He was born in the U.S. and raised in Mexico and came back to do high school and later became an agent."

The Ramoses also contend Aldrete-Davila's story changed several times.

According to the memo, Aldrete-Davila told investigators the agents shot him in the buttocks when he was trying to enter the country illegally from Mexico. But according to Aldrete-Davila's later testimony and that of the agents, he was shot after trying to evade the agents upon his re-entry into Mexico.

The memo never was disclosed to the jury.

Aldrete-Davila is suing the Border Patrol for $5 million for violating his civil rights.

MISSING HISTORY As a Border Patrol agent, Ramos has been involved in the capture of nearly 100 drug smugglers and the seizure of untold thousands of pounds of narcotics. He also was nominated for Border Patrol Agent of the Year in March 2005, though the nomination was withdrawn after details of the Aldrete-Davila incident came out.

Ramos also had drug interdiction training from the Drug Enforcement Agency and qualified as a Task Force Officer with the Border Patrol. But Ramos' training in narcotics -- as well as the numerous credentials he had received for taking Border Patrol field training classes -- was not admissible during the trial, he said.

"My husband is a good man, a loving father, and his devotion to his country and his job is undeniable," Monica Ramos said. "Prosecutors treated the drug smuggler like an innocent victim, refusing to allow testimony that would have helped my husband. The smuggler was given immunity. My husband is facing a life in prison.

"It's so frightening, it doesn't seem real."

The El Paso Sheriff's Department has met with the Ramos family to discuss continued threats against them from people they believe to be associated with Aldrete-Davila. The sheriff's department also has increased patrols around the family's home.

The only other organization that has responded to the Ramoses thus far, Monica Ramos said, is the Chino-based nonprofit group Friends of the Border Patrol, chaired by Andy Ramirez.

"This is the greatest miscarriage of justice I have ever seen," Ramirez said. "This drug smuggler has fully contributed to the destruction of two brave agents and their families and has sent a very loud message to the other Border Patrol agents: If you confront a smuggler, this is what will happen to you."

TJ Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing border agents, said the Border Patrol's official pursuit policy handcuffs agents in the field. He also sees the prosecution of Ramos and Compean as part of a larger effort by the federal government.

"The pursuit policy has negatively affected the Border Patrol's mission as well as public safety. Part of that mission is stop terrorists and drug smugglers," Bonner said. "They could be smuggling Osama bin Laden, drugs, illegal aliens, or it could have been just some drunk teenager out on a joyride. You don't know until you stop them."

"The administration is trying to intimidate front-line agents from doing their job," he added. "If they can't do it administratively, they'll do it with trumped-up criminal charges.

"Moreover, the specter of improprieties in the prosecution of this case raises serious concerns that demand an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation."

COUNTING THE DAYS About a week ago, feeling little hope, Joe Loya, Monica Ramos' father, took the family on what will be Ignacio Ramos' last fishing trip with his sons before he is sentenced.

"What kind of justice is this?" Loya asked. "What kind of nation do we live in when the word of a smuggler means more than the word of a just man?"

Monica Ramos says her hardest day is yet to come -- the day the authorities take her husband away.

"We just guard (our children's) hearts right now," Monica Ramos said. "I think about the last time he'll hug them as children, and maybe not get the chance to hug them again until they are grown men."

The sons are between 6 and 13 years old.

Ignacio Ramos was, if anything, even more emotional.

"Less than a month left with my family," he said, his voice choking, as though the air had been pulled from his lungs. "My sons," he whispered. Then silence.

It took several minutes for Ramos to summon more words. "All I think about at night is the day I have to leave my family. I can't sleep. I've always been with them."

Then he talked about the memories he would never have, "their first dates, high school graduation, sports," and the tears falling from his eyes were mirrored only by those of his wife, who took his hand into hers.

- Sara A. Carter can be reached by e-mail at sara.carter@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-8552.

__._,_.___


TOPICS: Extended News; US: Arizona; US: California; US: Texas; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: agent; aliens; border; borderpatrol; bordersecurity; compean; convicted; fabens; govwatch; illegalaliens; illegalimmigrant; immigrant; immigrantlist; immigration; ramos; ramosandcompean; saraacarter; smuggling; story; tells; triggerhappy; wodlist
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1 posted on 08/08/2006 6:59:57 PM PDT by Ladycalif
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To: Ladycalif; Bikers4Bush; janetgreen; dennisw; gubamyster; nomad; 1_Inch_Group; 2sheep; SandRat; ...

ping


2 posted on 08/08/2006 7:00:50 PM PDT by Ladycalif
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To: Ladycalif

http://friendsoftheborderpatrol.com/501Home.html


Breaking News

FBP launches "Pardon The Agents" national campaign

Friends of the Border Patrol in response to public outcry and support of U.S. Border Patrol Agents Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos, Jose A. Compean, and their families is launching our "Pardon The Agents" campaign and asks that President George W. Bush pardon the agents. We will be submitting a letter to the White House later this week... Read the press release HERE...



Border Patrol agents abandoned by command; smuggler never charged

Dear Friends,

I am writing to ask for your help and support for two brave U.S. Border Patrol agents who were abandoned by their command and hung out to dry. I also ask that you read my cover note, and the subsequent article by Sara Carter who was granted this interview by the agents you are about to meet and forward this to everyone you know.

Over the past year, since contacted by a California based family member of Border Patrol Agent Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos I have personally investigated an incident that led to criminal charges and convictions of two Border Patrol agents in El Paso, Texas. I contend as do a number of Texas Border Sheriffs that they are innocent


3 posted on 08/08/2006 7:10:40 PM PDT by Ladycalif
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To: Ladycalif

BUMP! I'm still reading all of this information, Ladycalif. Thank you so much for posting this!


4 posted on 08/08/2006 7:12:39 PM PDT by Chena (I'm not young enough to know everything.)
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To: Ladycalif

I'm going to do it right now.


5 posted on 08/08/2006 7:15:27 PM PDT by Boazo (From the mind of BOAZO)
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To: Chena

Thanks for your help. What on earth is Homeland Security thinking???


6 posted on 08/08/2006 7:16:24 PM PDT by Ladycalif
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To: Ladycalif

THESE FINE MEN WERE DOING TOO GOOD OF A JOB. SOMEBODY DIDNT LIKE IT AND PASSED THE WORD, TAKE EM DOWN. DISGRACEFUL.


7 posted on 08/08/2006 7:17:50 PM PDT by HANG THE EXPENSE (Defeat liberalism, its the right thing to do for America.)
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To: Ladycalif

I took an article about this injustice to the local office of my Congressman yesterday, and asked the aid to read it, after he had read it I asked if he would see if he could get me more information on this case. As it turns out the Aid's uncle is a BP agent. The aid said he would speak to the Congressman about opening a congressional investigation into the matter.


8 posted on 08/08/2006 7:23:33 PM PDT by c-b 1 (Reporting from behind enemy lines, in occupied AZTLAN.)
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To: Ladycalif
Initial Post

Encapsulation:
Homeland Security investigator Christopher Sanchez received a telephone call from Border Patrol agent Rene Sanchez about Aldrete-Davila's encounter with Ramos and Compean. Rene Sanchez stated "that Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila's mother, Marcadia Aldrete-Davila, contacted Rene Sanchez's mother-in-law, Gregoria Toquinto, and advised her about the BP agents shooting Aldrete-Davila. Toquinto told her son-in-law, Rene Sanchez, of the incident, and he spoke to smuggler Aldrete-Davila via a telephone call."

It's a fact that this BP agent is related to a drug dealer through marriage. If the last name similarity isn't just a coincidence, so is the Homeland Security investigator. This warrants a full-scale investigation, especially when a government employee stated repeatedly that chasing suspects is strictly forbidden. Who made that rule, when was it implemented, who approved it and what use is a Border Patrol ordered to let people who run get away?

9 posted on 08/08/2006 7:40:12 PM PDT by NewRomeTacitus (Take God out of America and find sin the ruling consensus.)
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To: Ladycalif

The prosecutor is a traitor.


10 posted on 08/08/2006 8:14:51 PM PDT by stinkerpot65
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To: Ladycalif
Thank you for posting this. I'll send it on to friends who will write letters in support of these two men.

I'll make sure my Representative hears about this personally, and I'll ask her to write a letter too.

It's pure insanity that these two have been prosecuted, yet the armed drug runners/invaders haven't even been charged!!

11 posted on 08/08/2006 8:15:13 PM PDT by janetgreen
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To: janetgreen

And the Border Patrol guy who turned them in is related by marriage to the smuggler..

This stinks!


12 posted on 08/08/2006 8:18:25 PM PDT by Ladycalif
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To: Ladycalif

I have Fox news channel on right now and the O'Reilly show (which is being aired again....we're in Alaska). O'Reilly is covering this story today.


13 posted on 08/08/2006 8:31:00 PM PDT by Chena (I'm not young enough to know everything.)
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To: janetgreen

Lou Dobbs will be doing a story about the two border agents tomorrow.. Thursday.... with details.


14 posted on 08/08/2006 8:34:31 PM PDT by Ladycalif
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To: Ladycalif

This is old news.

The BP agents failed to disclose discharging their firearms, much less informing that they might have shot someone.

Then they tried to cover it up..

And then impede an investigation?

These guys can rot in jail..


15 posted on 08/08/2006 8:42:30 PM PDT by Experiment 6-2-6 (Admn Mods: tiny, malicious things that glare and gibber from dark corners.They have pins and dolls..)
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Comment #16 Removed by Moderator

To: Ladycalif

Will you keep the folks at the Calendar informed, they have an e-mail or request post here link. They have the agents court date up on the Calendar already- I have already sent them the fax and # you have provided here. GREAT WORK Ladycalif !
http://anti-illegalimmigrationevents.com/


17 posted on 08/09/2006 2:23:00 AM PDT by colors
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To: Experiment 6-2-6

What bothers me much more than these agents possibly covering up their shooting of the smuggler is that the DOJ went out of their way to find this guy in Mexico who had entered the U.S. illegally with 800 lbs of pot and who had assaulted a BP agent, and then gave him full immunity in order to prosecute the agents. Something is wrong there.

And now the smuggler is suing us for $5 million.


18 posted on 08/09/2006 2:34:33 AM PDT by gaussia
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To: Ladycalif; hispanarepublicana; LongElegantLegs; radar101; RamingtonStall; engrpat; HamiltonFan; ...

BP Agents Injustice Ping!


19 posted on 08/09/2006 5:39:41 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch (Terroristas-beyond your expectations!)
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To: Ladycalif
"It is a violation of Border Patrol regulations to go after someone who is fleeing," she said. "The Border Patrol pursuit policy prohibits the pursuit of someone."

Insanity has a new home. The Border Control higher ups at headquarters have no grasp of reality, and anyone who thinks our borders are secure is delusional.
20 posted on 08/09/2006 5:44:06 AM PDT by conservativecorner
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