Free Republic

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

In an ongoing effort to fully examine the circumstances behind two Border Patrol agents' convictions for shooting a fleeing drug smuggler, congressional leaders called on the Department of Justice on Thursday to suspend sentencing the agents pending a full congressional investigation and hearing into their case. At a news conference in Washington, D.C., Rep. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., and five other congressional representatives asked U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to reopen the case of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean and delay the agents' Oct. 18 sentencing hearing. Ramos and Compean are facing up to 20 years in prison for...

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein is asking the Senate Judiciary Committee to fully review the case of two Border Patrol agents facing 20 years in prison for violating a drug smuggler's civil rights. Rep. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., went even further, sending a letter to President Bush asking him to personally review the case. Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos broke his 18-month silence on his altercation with the drug smuggler, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Bulletin. His co-worker, Jose Alonso Compean, has been asked by his attorney to not speak to the media while his sentencing hearing...

Mexican Neighbor Shows Rope Tricks Buddy and Kingfish Roofer 1 and a roofer 2, Chicago, Chechstan, Howard and Max San Diego Union Tribune: Interviews Kingfish Showing the photographer over the fence figuring out the cell phone Max, JJ Kingfish, Chicago Felix Cartel Drug House

A conservative grass-roots organization has gathered nearly 40,000 signatures since Wednesday on a petition to be sent to President Bush on behalf of two Border Patrol agents convicted of violating a drug smuggler's civil rights. Two of the jurors who convicted the agents also are expressing misgivings about the verdict, saying they were pressured by other jury members and the prosecution to reach a quick decision in the case. Grassfire, a nonprofit organization that uses online petitions to affect legislation, has created a special Web link and letter to President Bush for Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, who were...

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...

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...

SAN DIEGO - Narcotics syndicates operating along the southern border are a threat to the security of the United States, and not enough is being done to close the nation's borders to would-be terrorists, government witnesses told U.S. congressional leaders Wednesday. The House Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Non-proliferation held the first of several field hearings on border security and terrorism at the Imperial Beach Border Patrol Station in San Diego. During testimony, law enforcement agents, researchers and federal officials said they lack the funding, manpower and technology to fully secure the nation's northern and southern borders. "Drug cartels, smuggling...

One day in the winter of 1996, while 12-year-old Suad Leija was getting ready for school, more than a dozen armed FBI agents raided her family's Chicago-area home. They were looking for her stepfather, Manuel Leija-Sanchez, who federal authorities believe runs a document-fraud network -- producing fake passports, Social Security cards, driver's licenses and a variety of other official papers -- with cells throughout the United States. That cold morning, the agents were too late. Manuel Leija-Sanchez had fled during the night to Mexico after he was tipped off to the impending raid, his stepdaughter recalled. The business continued to...

Suad Leija has many secrets. The stepdaughter of Manuel Leija-Sanchez -- a key figure in what federal authorities believe is a document fraud organization run by the Castorena and Leija-Sanchez families -- has been in hiding and on the run from her own family. To help U.S. authorities crack down on document fraud, human smuggling and a host of other international crimes, she has revealed her family business, identified relatives and shed light on a series of national security failures. Fraudulent documents allegedly produced by the families include Social Security cards, driver's licenses, passports, hazardous materials licenses, utility bills and...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Sara Carter of the Daily Bulletin was honored Friday for her work covering immigration in the past year. At a panel luncheon ceremony near Capitol Hill, Carter was presented with the Eugene Katz Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration, presented annually by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank. CIS Executive Director Mark Krikorian praised Carter for her willingness to pursue stories in border regions few reporters have visited, and noted her reporting had attracted the attention of readers all over the country, including members of Congress. Krikorian noted that Carter's reporting affected...

Border Patrol fears run-ins with Mexican military In the Sonoran desert along the Texas border, Border Patrol agents say they're often confronted by corrupt Mexican military units in the employ of violent drug smugglers. These run-ins have become so regular that the Department of Homeland Security eventually issued written directives a "what to do" list, of sorts" that agents carry with them while patrolling the area.

It's a widespread belief, one reinforced by public officials including President Bush: ``Illegal immigrants do the jobs Americans won't do.'' But it's being challenged in a five-year study that concludes millions of undereducated Americans are without work in a labor market oversaturated by illegal immigrants. Steven Camarota, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favors reduced immigration, released the findings Wednesday in Washington, D.C. The study calls into question the theory that America is desperately short of underskilled workers, Camarota said. More importantly, he added, the research concluded that illegal immigration had a direct effect on...

A Mexican official suggested Thursday that it was American soldiers disguised as Mexicans who were involved in an armed standoff Monday along the Rio Grande with U.S. law enforcement officers. Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said in a news conference that U.S. soldiers have helped drug traffickers in the past, but offered no specific examples. "Members of the U.S. Army have helped protect people who were processing and transporting drugs," Derbez said. "And just as that has happened ... it is very probable that something like that could have happened, that in reality they were members of some of their...

Critics of U.S. border security policy already contend the nation's borders are porous -- lacking in sufficient manpower and technology -- yet the federal government spends hundreds of millions of dollars to help secure other countries' boundaries. More than 1,000 Customs and Border Protection officers and agents are deployed to Iraq, Honduras, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico to train military and law enforcement personnel in securing their borders, tracking people through rural terrain, and anti-terrorism, according to the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Over the past 10 years, nearly $400 million was allocated to Mexico from the...

With lawn chairs, binoculars and water bottles in tow, civilian volunteers will begin patrolling California's southern border today with hopes of drawing further attention to illegal immigration. But their arrival is being met by serious opposition. Chris Simcox, co-founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a civilian border watch group that began patrolling the Arizona/Mexico border in April, announced Friday the expansion of the controversial project to California and New Mexico as well as three states along the northern U.S. border with Canada. "In the name of public safety and national security something needs to be done," Simcox said, speaking...

SIERRA BLANCA, Texas - Sheriff Arvin West sat behind his desk, winced and realized he was up against one of the biggest battles of his life. He is heading to Washington next week to testify before the Subcommittee on Homeland Security far from his home on the Texas plains -- far from the cotton fields, Rio Grande Valley and the small town that he holds dear. Arvin, a small-town sheriff, is considered a giant in his neck of the woods, and he'll need all his strength to battle the international incident that has landed at his front door. "It's a...

Chertoff plays down border incursion reports By Mason Stockstill, Staff Writer Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Wednesday played down reports outlining hundreds of border incursions by the Mexican military over the last 10 years. Chertoff, speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C., acknowledged that the Border Patrol has long known of crossings by uniformed troops, which some agents in border states say shows a level of collusion between Mexican military officers and drug-smuggling cartels. But he suggested that many of the incursions could have been innocent mistakes -- such as authorities in Mexico crossing into the United States in desert...

Immigrant-rights advocates demanded Thursday that the nation's largest Spanish-language television network publicly apologize for an e-mail they say was distributed throughout the company asking employees not to participate or promote the planned nationwide "Day Without a Latino" event on May 1. Plans to boycott Univision Communications Inc. and its affiliates were set to go forth Monday if the demands for a retraction were not met. Univision did not return phone calls for comment. The e-mail was distributed at a Riverside meeting by Armando Navarro, a UCR professor and immigration activist, who said that an executive with Univision distributed the memorandum...

Texas law enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents engaged in an armed standoff with Mexican military personnel and drug smugglers just inside the United States along the Rio Grande yesterday afternoon. According to a report in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario, Calif., both Texas law enforcement and the FBI stated nearly 30 American agents were part of the incident. Chief Deputy Mike Doyal of the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department told the paper Mexican military Humvees were towing what appeared to be thousands of pounds of marijuana across the border into the United States. Border Patrol agents called for...

Members of a violent international gang working for drug cartels in Central and South America are planning coordinated attacks along the U.S. border with Mexico, according to a Department of Homeland Security document obtained by the Daily Bulletin. Detailed inside a Jan. 20 officer safety alert, the plot's ultimate goal is to "begin gaining control of areas, cities and regions within the U.S." The information comes from the interrogation of a captured member of Mara Savatrucha, or MS-13, a transnational criminal syndicate born from displaced El Salvadoran death squads from the 1980s. The MS-13 member, who claimed to have smuggled...

Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West, whose law enforcement officers had an armed standoff with men dressed in Mexican military uniforms last week, said he is pleased congressional leaders are finally calling for an investigation. West said he has been told to appear before the investigations subcommittee meeting Tuesday. "There is no doubt in our minds that we confronted Mexican military personnel on the border," West said. "I'm not gratified that we had to back (the Congress) into a corner and carry video equipment instead of our guns to the operation." West, who was at the scene of the Jan. 23...

A loophole in the U.S. immigration system is allowing some citizenship applicants to go forward in the naturalization process and receive immigration benefits without complete FBI criminal background checks, according to government documents obtained by the Daily Bulletin. If the interview happens first, applicants can sue for immigration benefits if 120 days pass and the agency has not made decisions on their applications. Immigration benefits include citizenship, asylum, lawful permanent residency, employment authorization, refugee status, family and employment-related immigration and foreign student authorization.

Daily Bulletin reporter Sara Carter was named the winner of the 2006 Eugene Katz Award for Excellence in Coverage of Immigration the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies. This award "is intended to promote informed and fair reporting on this most contentious and complicated issue," according to the center. In announcing the award, the center cited stories, which Carter broke, about U.S. officials alerting the Mexican government to the activities of civilian border patrols and stories about drug cartels placing bounties on Texas law enforcement officers. "The body of her reporting over the past year is an important example of...

Twenty-one congressional leaders have called for an independent investigation into reports that officials from the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection were providing information to the Mexican government about civilian patrol groups. The lawmakers are asking the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, to look into the relationship between Homeland Security and the Mexican Foreign Consulate. In a letter sent Monday to David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States, the congressional leaders expressed concern that the Mexican Foreign Ministry is unduly influencing the federal law enforcement agency. "Additionally, with reports that...

While Minuteman civilian patrols are keeping an eye out for illegal border crossers, the U.S. Border Patrol is keeping an eye out for Minutemen -- and telling the Mexican government where they are. According to three documents on the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Web site, the U.S. Border Patrol is to notify the Mexican government as to the location of Minutemen and other civilian border patrol groups when they participate in apprehending illegal immigrants -- and if and when violence is used against border crossers. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman confirmed the notification process, describing it as...