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A second former Border Patrol agent who received a lengthy sentence in a case involving the shooting of a fleeing drug smuggler has been resentenced to his original 11 years and a day in prison, as the agents' supporters hold out hope for presidential pardons. Ignacio Ramos got the same sentence two years ago when he was convicted in the shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, an admitted, and now convicted, drug smuggler. On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone gave Ramos' partner, Jose Alonso Compean, his original 12-year sentence, 10 years on a charge of using a weapon in...

The latest issue of Texas Monthly magazine examines the case of former Border Patrol agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos and questions why conservatives are celebrating them as heroes. Compean and Ramos are serving 12 and 11 years in prison respectively for shooting and wounding a Mexican drug dealer and trying to cover it up. The case has become a cause celebre among conservatives and groups that advocate tougher border controls. Supporters say that the agents were wrongly convicted for protecting the United States against criminal intruders. Many are angry that the drug dealer — who entered the United...

INVASION USA Citing the case of imprisoned former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean among other complaints, all 100 top leaders of the National Border Patrol Council have endorsed a no-confidence resolution against Chief David V. Aguilar. The union, which represents 11,000 of the U.S. Border Patrol's nonsupervisory field agents, pointed to Aguilar's willingness to believe the "perjured allegations" of criminal aliens over his own agents, in a statement issued today, first reported by the Washington Times. Ramos and Compean are among a number of agents who recently have been prosecuted on civil rights grounds for their actions in...

RAMOS: I had a pretty good sense, I mean, like I said, I had done this for the last ten years and the fact that the person that was driving this van didn't yield to, at the time, Agent Juarez, who first encountered the van, and then didn't yield to me, once I got behind it, pretty much gave us a good indication that at that time, yes, 99 percent chance that he was carrying narcotics in the van. I mean, that's just the way things worked out there. DOBBS: You said, when you were down in the ditch and...

What really happened in border shooting? By PAULINE ARRILLAGA, AP National Writer FABENS, Texas - The prairie where it all happened is quiet now, but for the occasional Border Patrol vehicle passing by. A sign rests near a muddy ditch, "Stop Illegal Immigration," left behind by protesters who have visited in homage to two ex-agents, imprisoned for shooting a drug smuggler in the backside as he sprinted toward Mexico. Former U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Ham points toward the location at Fabens, Texas, on Monday, Feb. 5, 2007, where former Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean...

Johhny Sutton. You hired him in 2001. It’s time he was on his way. Give him his walking papers. Let him go. Heck, give him a freakin’ medal like you did George Tenhet, I don’t care, just put his azz on the road. After crucifying Border Agents Ramos and Compean, this piece of legalistic trash has done it again: this time to a 25 year old Texas Deputy who had the misfortune of being the victim of attempted murder by a carload of illegal immigrants. They tried to run him over with a Chevy Suburban. He fired his gun at...

For an agent of the Mexican government, Johnny Sutton speaks pretty good English. That's the title anti-immigrant zealots hung on the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas after prosecutors in his office convicted ex-Border Patrol agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos of shooting 15 times at an unarmed suspect who was running away. Sentenced to 12 years and 11 years in prison, the former agents are behind bars. Because the defendants were once Border Patrol agents and because the convictions relied on testimony from the victim - a Mexican drug smuggler who got immunity - the prosecutors...

The spin about the inspector general’s report is belied by what is in the inspector general’s report. A report by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general is the occasion for the latest offensive by champions of Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos, the former Border Patrol agents currently serving lengthy sentences for assault and obstruction of justice in connection with their 2005 shooting of an unarmed, fleeing drug dealer. I say the report is the occasion rather than the grist for the offensive because, quite obviously, the agents’ apologists would prefer that people not actually read the report. DHS has made...

EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- A former U.S. Border Patrol agent who was convicted of shooting a drug smuggling suspect and then lying about it was beaten by fellow inmates in prison, his relatives and a congressman said Tuesday. Prison officials did not immediately confirm that Ignacio Ramos had been attacked. The convictions of Ramos and fellow former agent Jose Alonso Compean sparked outcry from critics who argued that the men were merely doing their job defending the border against criminals. U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a vocal supporter of the agents and opponent of illegal immigration, criticized the Bush...

Suspect in case against border guards given free pass on charges The judge in the high-profile case of two U.S. Border Patrol officers imprisoned after shooting and wounding a Mexican drug smuggler allegedly sealed key testimony and issued gag orders preventing the defendants, their families and trial participants from discussing the smuggler's involvement in a second drug bust – for which he again was granted immunity in order to testify against the agents. According to Andy Ramirez, chairman of Friends of the Border Patrol, and reliable sources close to the case, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila was apprehended in an October 2005 drug...

The Border-Patrol Two Deserve Jail Law enforcement defends its honor, despite the “hero” propaganda By Andrew C. McCarthy “Texans aren’t whiners,” Johnny Sutton told me. Still, forgive him if he sounds a bit frustrated. Sutton is the top federal law-enforcement officer in one of the nation’s most notorious border badlands. Day in and day out, while no one was paying much attention to the dusty Rio Grande towns outside El Paso, he has been the U.S. Border Patrol’s staunchest ally. A solid law-and-order conservative, Sutton’s position, United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas, is a unique perch from...

Washington, Jan 19 - The National Border Patrol Council, which represents the United States Border Patrol, released a rebuttal today to U.S. Attorney to the Western District of Texas, Johnny Sutton. Sutton, who was in charge of prosecuting Border Patrol Agents Compean and Ramos for shooting a drug dealer during a scuffle at the border, has been defending himself in the press against charges that this prosecution was unjustified. The NBPC document, in answering Sutton's defense point by point, shows why this prosecution has outraged so many people. NBCP Rebuttal to Sutton (PDF FILE)

Most people would consider corrupt border patrol agents to be part of the illegal immigration problem, not the solution. So it's passing strange that anti-immigration Republicans in Congress are calling for the federal government to release Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, two former border guards from Texas who were sent to prison last week for shooting an unarmed man in the back and then trying to cover up their crime.

Calls State of the Union speech 'total sellout of the United States of America to Mexico' Monica Ramos, the wife of one of two U.S. Border Patrol agents imprisoned last week for wounding an escaping drug smuggler, attended the State of the Union speech in person last night – and was sharply critical of President Bush, calling him a hypocrite and worse. Ramos, wife of Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos, attended the event as a guest of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean began prison sentences last week, of 11 and 12 years respectively, for their...