[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 7 (Thursday, January 17, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H336]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    POLITICAL PRISONERS FOR ONE YEAR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Madam Speaker, today it is cold in Washington. It is 
snowing. They say it may snow some more. But there are two places in 
the United States that are colder than in this city, and they are in 
separate places. They are two prison cells, Federal penitentiaries, 
where two border agents, now, today have spent one calendar year in 
confinement for doing their job on the Texas-Mexico border.
  Madam Speaker, it seems as though border agents Ramos and Compean 
have been punished for doing what we hired them to do. Because, you 
see, when they were patrolling the Texas-Mexico border, a drug smuggler 
came into the United States bringing almost a million dollars worth of 
drugs into this country. They had a confrontation with this drug 
dealer. They both believed him to have a weapon. Shots were fired, and 
he disappeared in Mexico, leaving his load of drugs in this country.
  Unbeknownst to them, they shot the drug smuggler. A few months later, 
our Federal Government relentlessly went and found this drug dealer, 
brought him back to the United States and gave him immunity from his 
crimes to testify against the border agents for, get this, a civil 
rights violation against him, the drug smuggler. They were tried and 
they were convicted and sent to the Federal penitentiary for 11 and 12 
years.
  But what the jury in that trial did not know was that the U.S. 
Justice Department, the Attorney General's Office, hid evidence in that 
case from the jury, because Madam Speaker, they not only made a deal 
with this drug smuggler not to prosecute him for bringing in a million 
dollars worth of drugs; while he is waiting to testify at the trial, he 
brings in another load of drugs. And then our U.S. Attorney's Office 
had the audacity for months to deny that ever occurred.
  But now the truth has come out. Now we know. Now the whole world 
knows that that evidence was hidden from the jury. The Fifth Circuit 
Court of Appeals has heard this case on appeal. We are waiting to see 
if they reverse the case because the U.S. Attorney's Office hid 
evidence that the jury should have heard because, you see, the star 
witness, the witness that the U.S. Attorney's Office made a backroom 
deal with, brought in other drugs. The jury should have known that to 
judge the credibility of the witness. And this is not the first time 
the U.S. Attorney's Office has done this.
  In the year 2000, another border agent by the name of David Sipes 
came in contact with a human smuggler. He had a fight with him in the 
Rio Grande River as the human smuggler was bringing in people. And then 
David Sipes was prosecuted for, yes, a civil rights violation for 
assaulting the human smuggler.
  In that particular case, the U.S. Attorney's Office did the same 
thing. They hid evidence from the jury. They hid from the jury that 
this human smuggler was given $80,000 as a settlement, that he was 
allowed to cross back and forth between the United States and Mexico, 
that he was given a Texas driver's license, a U.S. Social Security 
card. And also in that case, yes, that human smuggler, while waiting to 
testify, brought in another load of illegals into this country.
  But in that case, the U.S. Attorney's Office was caught. A new trial 
was ordered because they hid evidence, and that jury in that case found 
David Sipes, border agent, not guilty because the U.S. Attorney's 
Office was not seeking justice but convictions.
  It makes us wonder what our U.S. Attorney's Office is doing and what 
side of they border war they are on. They are supposed to be protecting 
Americans. They are supposed to be protecting the border agents. But 
yet they seem to prefer protecting human smugglers and drug dealers. 
That makes us wonder whether the Justice Department needs to be 
investigated as to their priorities, because this ought not to be.
  Yet two border agents are still in prison 1 year today. They have 
served time, and they should be released. The President should pardon 
them, and hopefully the Fifth Circuit will do the right thing and order 
a new trial in this case.
  Our government needs to be on the right side of the border war and 
support our border agents and make people understand that you can't 
bring drugs and illegals into the country without being prosecuted.
  And that's just the way it is.

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