Tancredo Asks Obama to Pardon Border Agents

The Hill ^ | 10 Nov 2008 | Chris Good

[BGHater]

Lest President-elect Barack Obama forget that he will soon hear passionate calls on a wide range of issues, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) today called on the Democrat to pardon imprisoned border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean–a hot-button issue for immigration activists.

The agents' case has been a rallying cry for immigration hard-liners like Tancredo, but it has garnered attention from centrists and liberals as well — Democrats Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), joined calls for an examination of the case.

Ramos and Compean are serving prison sentences for shooting a man near the Texas-Mexico border in 2005. They shot a man in the buttocks after he waved what appeared to be a gun at them, the agents said. Nearly 800 pounds of marijuana were found in the van he abandoned as he fled, according to news reports on the case.

Tancredo had this to say in a letter to Obama today:

President-elect Obama:

Congratulations on your electoral victory of last week; I hope that you do bring some needed changes to Washington. One such change that would bring hope to the men and women who protect America’s borders is granting a pardon to wrongly-imprisoned agents Ramos and Compean…

These are the kind of men whose government failed and destroyed them – all while they were serving a cause greater than themselves. These men deserve justice. I, and many other Members of Congress, have repeatedly called upon President Bush to exercise his power to pardon – but he has not done so. You will also soon have that chance. You will also soon have the opportunity to show the nation that you will preside over the kind of government that truly is compassionate, as opposed to the rhetoric that Mr. Bush never fulfilled.

I respectfully urge you to use your power as President to take the immediate, appropriate and long overdue step of freeing them in your first two weeks in office, and see to it that agents Ramos and Compean spend President’s Day at home with their families – instead of sitting in solitary confinement in a federal prison because they had the temerity to do their job.

[2dogjoe]

W. will pardong them just as he leaves office.

[Sybeck1]

Wanna bet a steak dinner on that?

[supremedoctrine]

I just heard a drop of water fall into the ocean.
It sounded just like Tancredo’s letter.
You may be right, about Bush pardoning them as he
leaves office, but I’m not holding my breath.

[word_warrior_bob]

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k6KUDv1wzraWhwlBt1

I wouldn’t hold my breathe, Tom.

[Carling]

Jorge W. Bush will pardon the men he had prosecuted?

Doubtful...

[Cicero]

Bush only forgives his enemies, seemingly.

[TXBlair]

W. will pardong them just as he leaves office.

I think so, too. I'm not placing any bets on it, mind you, but I think he'll come through for those guys.

[itsthejourney]

W nor Hussein will pardon them.

[supremedoctrine]

Don’t put too much credence in FR bets.
I once bet a guy during the Gary Condit/Chondra Levy
death scandal that Condit would NEVER get re-elected, and this guy insisted that he would, and would in fact come out for all kinds of women-protection causes. He was willing to bet a $30 gift certificate at Outback Steakhouse.(His specific idea, not mine). When Condit didn’t get re elected and vanished into obscurity, I reminded the guy of our bet. And reminded him, nicely. And reminded him. For three or four months I reminded him, and he kept assuring me he’d get to it. He never did. I will not reveal his name, but he knows who he is, as he’s a pretty regular poster, and might even read this. If you win the bet, don’t expect your dinner.

[Theodore R.]

Tancredo must hold no hope that GWB would pardon them. If he were, why would he have not done so months ago?

[Shermy]

Want to bet someone in the Bush Whitehouse forced the prosecution in order to send a message to the BP to be lax on enforcement?

[freespirited]

I have been thinking it’s about 3 chances in 5 that Dubya pardons them on the way out the door.

[Balding_Eagle]

I wonder if Obama will reverse the GWB policy and allow Tancredo into the White House?

[garyhope]

You’re kidding right?

Obambi will probably have them caned, beaten, drawn and quartered and hung and shot on the “Black House” lawn on live TV. Then he’ll have their families and cats and dogs killed too.

The new PC and “fair and balanced” peace, love and compassion is coming to a neighborhood near you soon. It’s the new “hope and change”.

[PhilDragoo]

"I'm not going to make that kind of promise in a forum like this," Bush said Thursday. "Obviously I am interested in facts. I know the prosecutor very well, Johnny Sutton. He's a dear friend of mine from Texas. He's a fair guy. He is an even-handed guy. And I can't imagine -- you've got a nice smile, but you can't entice me into making a public statement on something that requires a very -- I know this is an emotional issue, but people need to look at the facts."

"These men were convicted by a jury of their peers after listening to the facts as my friend, Johnny Sutton, presented them," Bush told the woman in Nashville. "But anyway, no, I won't make you that promise."

I called the White House Comment Line (1-202-456-1111) today and told the operator the president was ill-served by his quote dear friend Johnny Sutton, that the jurors were not told the truth, that they would not have voted to convict had they been told the truth, that the president should pardon Ramos and Compean before he leaves office.

Johnny Sutton knows what Aldrete-Davila does for a living--and sided with him against those who stand in the way of the free flow of drugs at market prices.

A call from the Mexican (drug cartel-controlled) government and the entire apparatus of the U.S. government falls into line to send the loyal law-abiding LEOs off to prison for eleven and twelve years respectively--

--while apologizing to the drug cartels and their pet Chihuahua in Mexico City.

"Dear friend"--how many of us have a dirty U.S. Attorney as a "dear friend"--

How's that War On Drugs thing working out--they're holding BLM officers hostage when they trespass on Mexican marijuana plantations in Nevada--

Must be that North American Marijuana Co-Prosperity Bong thing.

Oh yeah sure our presidente will pardon the agents.

Por seguro.

[AuntB]

I can’t imagine wasting the paper to ask Obama. La Raza wouldn’t like it. But then I’ve been surprised a lot lately.

[Travis McGee]

The past and future bastards will make them serve every day. Bastards.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

This is reflecting bad on Jorge Boosh, esp if Obama pardons them.

The fact that these two men were convicted based on the fraudulent testimony of an illegal alien drug dealer is enough of a travesty....to let them sit in prison is even a bigger one

[ladyvet]

He better...this has been a bag of B.S. from the beginning. If he does not, I will NEVER have a kind word to say about the man.