Free Republic

With just six days left of the Bush presidency, Rep.Dana Rohrabacher and a group of a dozen House members, including Rep. Ed Royce, held a press conference today to again implore the president to pardon or commute the sentences of the two ex-border patrol agents in federal prison for shooting a fleeing drug dealer at the Mexican border. “This prosecution was rotten from day one,’’ said Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, who has been working to free Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos since they were convicted in 2006. Compean’s sister, Claudia Martinez, lives in Huntington Beach. “Right now we have a chance...

SAN DIEGO—An historic canyon, used in years past by cattle rustlers and bandits as an illegal border crossing between Mexico and the United States and more recently by illegal immigrants, is slated to be wiped off the map. The federal government's project to fill in Smuggler's Gulch with dirt is scheduled to be completed by May. The government has lopped off the top of nearby hills and shoved some 1.7 million cubic yards of earth into the pass and neighboring Goat Canyon.

Campo Minutemen have been monitoring the trails the illegal border crossers use to meet their pick ups. From Campo, they move west and north. The trails run west to avoid the Border Patrol check point on the 8 Freeway. The Campo Minutemen have reported numerous pick ups in progress, and have encountered some under cover Border Patrol Agents.

I was born and raised in Chicago and have resided on the northside ..most of the time in the Illinois 5th Congresional district. Rod Blagojevich and Rahm Emmanuel have BOTH been my congressmen. Now because Rahm has announced that he is leaving and a special election will take place, I am considering throwing my name in for the special election. After all I reside here! Many of the Life-long Politicians who want the seat are just that, Life long politicians looking for another job. So I am asking FReepers far and wide to put on their think caps and help...

U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Lehigh Valley, today is sending a letter to President Bush, urging the outgoing president to pardon two former Border Patrol agents who are in prison for shooting a drug smuggler. Dent wrote that the two agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, "were acting in fulfillment of their duty and responsibility to protect our borders and enforce the law, and they have been unjustly punished for their actions." Though Dent's congressional district is hundreds of miles away from the Mexican border, the congressman has taken an interest in border-related issues because he sits on the House...

Marfa, Texas – Border Patrol agents from Marfa, Texas Friday responded to a request for assistance at the Reeves County Detention Center in Pecos, Texas. An uprising of prisoners was underway at the prison that had escalated to the level of a riot. Approximately 30 Marfa Sector Border Patrol Agents responded and provided perimeter security to aid in the prevention of prisoner escapes from the facility and to end the situation peaceably after approximately 17 hours. The Marfa Sector Special Response Team was activated and responded to the prison with a variety of specialized skills and equipment. They had an...

SAN DIEGO (CN) - A Border Patrol agent held him down while a train ran over him and cut off his foot, a Guatemalan immigrant says. Oswaldo Vanegas says his leg had to be amputated below the knee and he lost parts of two fingers when he tried to free his foot. Vanegas says he fled after the agent found him and others aboard a freight train near San Ysidro. He says the agent tackled him and he fell onto the tracks beneath a stopped train. "As the train began to move, the Border Patrol agent held onto Mr. Vanegas....

Reporting from Monterrey, Mexico -- In the seconds before the gunmen burst into the tiny Lozano Garza jewelry store in this city's downtown, three shoppers browsed the display cases. An unarmed security guard sat by the door.

710 KURV believes that these decorated agents have been punished enough for the shooting of an admitted and now convicted drug smuggling illegal alien. President George W. Bush has already granted pardons to 14 individuals and commuted the sentences of two more. 710 KURV is asking you for your involvement in our effort and join forces with national leaders such as Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). “Ramos and Compean have been living in the torture of solitary confinement for almost two years for something they never should have been prosecuted for in the first place,” said Rohrabacher. There are a couple...

The following news release was sent by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection: DOUGLAS - Border Patrol Agents from the Tucson Sector and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents came under fire from drug smugglers during a drug bust of more than 1,100 lbs of marijuana near Douglas, Arizona, yesterday. Courtesy: USBP Monday at 10:30 p.m., agents observed two large trucks, a Chevrolet Avalanche and a Ford F150 using ramps to cross over the border fence. While using a remote camera surveillance system, camera operators were able to coordinate field agents to intercept the trucks. As agents got close,...

(CNSNews.com) – In the waning days of the Bush administration, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is mulling whether to recommend a commutation for the two former Border Patrol agents jailed for more than a decade each for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler in the buttocks. The case is now before the DOJ’s Pardon Attorney Donald Rodgers. The Office of Pardon Attorney works in consultation with the attorney general’s office to assist the president, who has sole power of clemency in federal cases under the Constitution. Ultimately, it is the president’s call regardless of what the Office of Pardon Attorney recommends....

Justice: Two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a drug smuggler have been resentenced for the crime of protecting the borders of the United States. Mr. President, you do not have the right to remain silent.Former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are 20 months into their sentences for shooting drug dealer Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, who tried to elude the two agents after driving a van near Fabens, Texas, that was found to hold 743 pounds of marijuana. He tried to flee back to Mexico and was shot in the buttocks by the agents who had reason to believe he...

TUCSON, Ariz. - A mistrial was declared Tuesday in Tucson in the case of a Border Patrol agent accused of gunning down an illegal immigrant without provocation. Defense attorney Sean Chapman says he's disappointed the jury didn't acquit U.S Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Corbett of the charges against him. Corbett was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide in the death of Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera of Puebla, Mexico. Jurors could convict on only one charge. Three eyewitnesses, including the dead man's two brothers, testified he was kneeling to surrender as Corbett tried to arrest the four when the...

SAN DIEGO -- A Border Patrol agent was injured Tuesday after he was struck by a car driven by a suspected smuggler, 10News reported. The incident occurred before 5 p.m. at a vehicle checkpoint on westbound Interstate 8 at Buckman Springs Road.

<p>I just wanted to let you know so that we can get the word out that Nacho will be resentenced at 9am on November 13th in El Paso.</p> <p>This could be the only opportunity for everyone to see him before they take him back and lock him up again. I'm still trying to gather more information on the resentence. It has to do with our first appeal - they dropped one of the charges and ruled that he had to be resentenced.</p>

Unease about potential for spillover rises in U.S. After a particularly violent week in Tijuana that has left 54 dead in a fierce cartel power struggle, experts on both sides of the border fear the worst is yet to come. Law enforcement officers inspected several bodies found on a Tijuana street Friday. The string of violence continued yesterday, with 10 more bodies found around the city. Since early last year, Mexican President Felipe Calderón has deployed thousands of soldiers and federal police to drug-route battlegrounds such as Baja California, Chihuahua and Michoacan. Experts say it's clear that the recent bloodbath...

With a month to go until Election Day, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin told an enthusiastic crowd Saturday afternoon that it was time to "put on the heels and take off the gloves." And while she credited the line to a campaign worker, it and the rest of her 24-minute speech at the Home Depot Center rally was delivered with her trademark panache. The Republican hit the familiar topics of the economy, energy and defense, but offered a few surprises as well.

Border patrol agents in the Tucson sector said the 262 miles along Arizona’s border with Mexico can be downright dangerous for them. Surveillance cameras show people on the Mexican side of the border hurling rocks over the fence at agents. “It's a major problem and it's increasing, said Agent Mike Scioli. "That's the danger of it." According to Scioli, assaults against border patrol agents are up 22 percent from last year. He blames frustrated human smugglers. "Now we have more manpower, the fencing is up and the technology,” said Scioli. “It's made their job a lot more difficult." Pictures provided...

In the matter of the unjust imprisonment of U.S. Border Agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos Whereas, U.S. Border Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, while doing their duty to defend our borders, engaged a Mexican drug dealer who they thought was armed as he tried to flee back into Mexico; and Whereas, in self-defense they fired gunshots at the drug dealer; and Whereas, they and all other agents and officials present that day thought the shots, while justified, missed their mark; and Whereas, responding to what appears to be political pressure from the Mexican Government, your Justice Department enticed...