[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 23 (Wednesday, February 7, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H1277]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
       FORMER BORDER PATROL AGENTS IGNACIO RAMOS AND JOSE COMPEAN

  (Mrs. BLACKBURN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, you know, we are discussing national 
security every single day on the floor of this House, and our Border 
Patrol agents seem to be the forgotten soldiers fighting this war on 
terror. They guard our border every single day and protect our country 
from terrorists, from human traffickers, from drug traffickers.
  Former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were 
recently convicted of shooting a drug smuggler while they were 
patrolling and protecting the border. Then they were sentenced to a 
decade in prison. You may have read that our own U.S. Attorney had this 
drug smuggler brought from Mexico, gave him immunity to testify against 
our agents, and then the smuggler was released.
  Now the drug smuggler is suing the U.S. Government for damages. As 
soon as Agent Ramos began his sentence in a Federal prison, he was 
assaulted by drug smugglers and drug users who were inmates in that 
prison. Ramos was doing his duty, protecting Americans from the thugs 
and the drug smugglers. Now we have failed to protect him.

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