Free Republic

A former director of the Drug Enforcement Administration warned federal officials shortly after the September 11 attacks that violent drug cartels from Mexico were teaming with Muslim gangs to fund terrorist organizations overseas. Asa Hutchinson, who also has been a Homeland Security undersecretary, said that in 2001, DEA agents uncovered the link between the drug cartels and terrorist groups but too few government officials listened. "I think it's important to recognize that the link between terrorism and drug trafficking exists," said Mr. Hutchinson in a phone interview from Arkansas. "While we are fighting terrorists, we should not neglect our fight...

EL PASO, Texas -- The two former Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a drug smuggler in the buttocks last year were denied a postponement of their sentencing during a heated court hearing Tuesday. Lawyers for the agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, hope that a congressional hearing to review the case, which has been promised for the week of Nov. 13, would reduce the sentencing guidelines that apply in the case. Mary Stillinger, Ramos' lawyer, said her idea was that the hearings, which have not been formally scheduled by the House Judiciary Committee, could lead to legislation to...

Fifteen congressional representatives this week urged the outgoing chairman of the House Judiciary Committee to immediately hold hearings in the case of two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a drug smuggler. The congressmen, led by Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, and Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., made their plea in a letter to committee Chairman Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. The group included California Reps. Ken Calvert, R-Riverside, whose district includes Norco, and Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R- Orange, and Rep. Gary Miller, R-Brea, also signed the letter. Sensenbrenner could not be reached late Friday for comment. "The purpose...

Former Border Patrol Agent Jose Alonso Compean attends a press conference and rally on Thursday, December 21, 2006 in front of the Old Orange County Courthouse where supporters, led by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher requested the President pardon both Compean and fellow agent Ignacio Ramos' conviction for the non fatal shooting of a Mexican citizen smuggling drugs into the United States. Compean and Ramos are both facing more than 10 years in prison. In the first official response of any kind to several congressional letters sent on behalf of two former Border Patrol agents, the U.S. Department of Justice Thursday...

COLUMBUS, N.M. - On Sept. 5, a man calling himself Miguel Alfonso Salinas was apprehended off a deserted highway near the U.S.-Mexico border. The tinted windows on Alfonso Salinas' The tinted windows on Alfonso Salinas' vehicle aroused the suspicion of Border Patrol agents patrolling a dark and desolate stretch of Highway 9, which runs parallel to the border and is the site of large numbers of illegal crossings. The agents discovered three Mexican migrants in the vehicle with Alfonso Salinas. But what they discovered several days later made a far greater impression. Alfonso Salinas was not who he seemed, according...

Two convicted former El Paso Border Patrol agents accused by the U.S. Attorney of not filing a report when they shot a Mexican drug smuggler were prohibited by their own agency's firearms policy from doing so, according to documents obtained by the Daily Bulletin. Meanwhile, the government made public Monday its response to Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos' October motion to reduce his sentence. The response contends that Ramos and fellow agent Jose Alonso Compean knowingly shot an unarmed suspect, filed a false report, and that supervisors were not notified. Attached to the motion were domestic violence arrest reports regarding...

A new Department of Homeland Security report about two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a drug smuggler directly contradicts key conclusions reached by the department's own investigator on the case. The report also does not support assertions about the agents made by the department's Office of Inspector General to several members of Congress during a private meeting last fall. The Report of Investigation, written Nov. 20 - 21 months after the shooting - and released Wednesday, concludes that nine other agents at the scene of the shooting did not know it had taken place and thus were not responsible...

The Mexican national shot by two Border Patrol agents in a drug-related incident in February 2005 brought a second van load of drugs into the U.S. while he waited to testify against the agents, according to Drug Enforcement Administration reports obtained by the Daily Bulletin. Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila - who was given immunity by U.S. prosecutors in exchange for testifying against former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean - is the focus of a November 2005 DEA report that identifies him as the person responsible for stashing more than 750 pounds of marijuana in a van parked at a house...

Top conservatives have joined ranking House leaders in their bid to pressure the president to pardon two Border Patrol agents ........... ......... 31 major conservative petitioners joined a campaign led by Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican and presidential candidate, asking President Bush to pardon Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean before Thanksgiving........ "History has proven that the mere words and deeds of a president can change the course of history and profoundly affect both the tone and direction of the nation's moral character for generations to come," said the letter signed by 31 petitioners, mostly from Christian conservative groups and...

President Bush is expected to reach out to the families of two Texas Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a Mexican drug smuggler. White House staff contacted former agent Ignacio Ramos' family early Friday, assuring them the president would call them soon, said Monica Ramos, the agent's wife.

LEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL! EVERYBODY WRITEto Agent Ramos TODAY!!!! Read the email below from Agent Ramos' father in law, Joe Loya - Agent Ramos is receiving NO MAIL from we the people!!!! EVERYBODY - WRITE - you can send mail directly to Agent Ramos at: Ignacio Ramos #58079-180 FCI Phoenix Federal Correctional Institution 37910 N. 45th Ave. Phoenix, AZ 85086 EMAIL FROM JOE LOYA: I just picked up Monica at the airport. She went to see Nacho today and tells me that the waiting on the appeal ruling has really gotten to him. Monica says that Nacho is in a...

Mike Huckabee vowed in Iowa Saturday that one of his first actions as president would be to review what he called the “absurd” convictions of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean – and suggested he might pardon them immediately. In response to an audience question, Huckabee said he found it hard to accept that the agents were imprisoned for shooting an accused drug smuggler who illegally crossed the Texas border near El Paso in 2005. The two were convicted of assault, obstruction of justice and civil rights violations. The case caused a conservative firestorm, and remains one of...

A bipartisan effort in Washington to encourage the president to free imprisoned U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean in time to spend Christmas with their families is gaining ground. A new bipartisan coalition yesterday delivered a letter to the White House, and another resolution, also a bipartisan plan, is advancing through the U.S. House of Representatives. Both ask President Bush to commute the agents' prison sentences. However, there's been no indication the White House would respond positively to the requests. In fact, this week a conference committee finalizing the Omnibus Appropriations Bill stripped out an amendment co-sponsored...

The White House apparently is so reluctant to discuss the issue of pardons or commutations for convicted U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean that a spokesman doesn't even want to allow questions about the issue to be finished. The circumstances arose during a White House press gaggle with spokesman Tony Fratto, when Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House, tried to raise the issue of the disparity in the treatment of the Border Patrol agents, compared to that given Scooter Libby, an aide to Vice President Dick Cheney who was convicted of lying during an investigation...

HOUSE PASSES AMENDMENT TO RELEASE IMPRISONED BORDER PATROL AGENTS Washington, D.C. – Late last evening, Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) was joined by several of his colleagues in successfully offering an amendment to H.R. 3093, the FY2008 Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Act, prohibiting funds from being applied to the incarceration of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. The amendment, which passed the House by voice vote, would force the Bureau of Prisons to release the agents. “Agents Ramos and Compean – serving 11 and 12 year prison sentences for wounding a drug smuggler running more than 750 pounds...

SAN DIEGO -- In the Old West, outlaw gangs would sometimes try to sidestep the criminal justice system by busting someone out of jail. Today, that role is being taken up by some members of Congress. Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing into the case of ex-Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean. The two men were convicted last year of shooting and wounding Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, an unarmed drug smuggler, along the U.S.-Mexican border and then covering it up by destroying evidence and falsifying reports. Ramos and Compean were sentenced to 11 and 12 years...

Today, U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, to address the prosecution of imprisoned Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos. Hunter's testimony, as prepared for delivery, follows: "Chairman Feinstein and Ranking Member Kyl, thank you for convening this important hearing today on the conviction and imprisonment of Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos. I deeply appreciate the opportunity to appear before you to provide my perspective on this matter, which I believe, represents a severe miscarriage of justice. "The conviction of agents Compean and Ramos...

Democrats have approved a congressional hearing to explore Mexico's possible influence on the prosecution of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.

L PASO, Tx. - Two former El Paso Border Patrol agents reported to federal officials Wednesday afternoon to start their prison sentence. Ignacio Ramos turned himself into federal officials in downtown El Paso shortly before 2pm Wednesday afternoon. Former agent Jose Compean turned himself in a short time later.

While the Bush administration seeks amnesty for illegal aliens and grants immunity to a Mexican drug smuggler, it has thrown the book at two courageous Border Patrol agents. Fabens, Texas — The chase was on. The suspected smuggler van turned back toward the Rio Grande and headed for Mexico. Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos was on his tail. Other agents were also converging on the scene. The suspect realized he wasn't going to outrun agent Ramos' vehicle, and so he abandoned his van on a levee and took off on foot. As the suspect headed into the canal, Ramos yelled...