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 News from Around the Americas | July 2007 
US Lawmakers Get Creative in Effort to Free 2 Ex-Border Agents
 Eunice Moscoso - Cox News Service
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| | Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos, 38, and Jose Compean, 28, are in federal prison, but the battle will forge ahead until these guys are free. |
Washington - Members of Congress have devised a mix of strategies in an effort to free two former Border Patrol agents serving long sentences for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler and trying to cover it up.
Citing "prosecutorial overreaching," Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., joined forces to send a letter to President Bush urging a commutation for the agents. Other lawmakers have gone a step further, asking the White House for a pardon.
But a few GOP House members are venturing into less-conventional waters, including an unusual congressional pardon and an amendment backed by Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., that would block the Bureau of Prisons from spending money to imprison the former officers.
The agents - Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos - are serving 12 and 11 years in prison, respectively, for shooting and wounding Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, who had entered the United States illegally in a van with more than 700 pounds of marijuana.
The case has become a cause c้l่bre among conservatives and groups that advocate tougher border controls. Supporters say the agents were wrongly convicted for protecting the United States against a criminal intruder. Many are incensed that Davila was offered immunity to testify against the officers and given visas to enter the United States.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who has championed the agents' cause, pushed for a hearing today by the House Foreign Affairs Committee to examine "cross-border" issues.
It will be the second congressional panel on the subject. Cornyn and Feinstein held a Senate hearing on the agents' case earlier this month.
At the previous hearing, the U.S. attorney in the case, Johnny Sutton of the Western District of Texas, staunchly defended his prosecution, saying the agents "were not heroes" and "deliberately shot an unarmed man in the back ... and lied about it."
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., also testified at the Senate hearing, on behalf of Compean and Ramos.
In another unusual tactic, Hunter teamed up with Tancredo and Ted Poe, R-Texas, on legislation that would prevent the Bush administration from using federal money to enforce the agents' sentences.
The House passed the measure last week as an amendment to a large spending bill.
Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer and frequent conservative commentator, said the amendment was unprecedented and "flagrantly unconstitutional." |
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