[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 162 (Wednesday, October 26, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H7114-H7115]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                BORDER PATROL AGENT SENTENCED TO PRISON

  (Mr. BURTON of Indiana asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, some of the most important people 
in America are the people that protect our southern border between the 
United States and Mexico. They lay their lives on the line to stop drug 
pushers and potential terrorists. They do this on a daily basis.
  Well, one of those agents, Jesus Diaz, Jr., in November of 2009, 
stopped a fellow coming across the border with 150 pounds of marijuana 
in his backpack. He arrested him. He put handcuffs on him, and he 
supposedly lifted his arms a little too high, and he did not subscribe 
to taking care of this man's constitutional rights.
  As a result, Agent Jesus Diaz, Jr., who has been cleared--he's been

[[Page H7115]]

cleared by Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General and the 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Office of Professional 
Responsibility. He was cleared by both of those of any wrongdoing; yet 
he got a 2-year jail sentence just in the last couple of days because 
he supposedly mistreated a drug dealer coming across the border 
carrying 150 pounds of drugs.
  This is just not right. This is just wrong.

               [From the Washington Times, Oct. 25, 2011]

                            (By Jerry Seper)

       A U.S. Border Patrol agent has been sentenced to two years 
     in prison for improperly lifting the arms of a 15-year-old 
     drug smuggling suspect while handcuffed--in what the Justice 
     Department called a deprivation of the teenager's 
     constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable 
     force.
       Agent Jesus E. Diaz Jr. was named in a November 2009 
     federal grand jury indictment with deprivation of rights 
     under color of law during an October 2008 arrest near the Rio 
     Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, in response to a report that 
     illegal immigrants had crossed the river with bundles of 
     drugs.
       In a prosecution sought by the Mexican government and 
     obtained after the suspected smuggler was given immunity to 
     testify against the agent, Diaz was sentenced last week by 
     U.S. District Judge Alia Moses Ludlum in San Antonio. The 
     Mexican consulate in Eagle Pass had filed a formal written 
     complaint just hours after the arrest, alleging that the 
     teenager had been beaten.
       Defense attorneys argued that there were no injuries or 
     bruises on the suspected smuggler's lower arms where the 
     handcuffs had been placed nor any bruising resulting from an 
     alleged knee on his back. Photos showed the only marks on his 
     body came from the straps of the pack he carried containing 
     the suspected drugs, they said. Border Patrol agents found 
     more than 150 pounds of marijuana at the arrest site.
       The defense claimed that the smuggling suspect was 
     handcuffed because he was uncooperative and resisted arrest, 
     and that the agent had lifted his arms to force him to the 
     ground--a near-universal police technique--while the other 
     agents looked for the drugs.
       The allegations against Diaz, 31, a seven-year veteran of 
     the Border Patrol, initially were investigated by Homeland 
     Security's Office of Inspector General and Immigration and 
     Customs Enforcement's Office of Professional Responsibility, 
     which cleared the agent of any wrongdoing.
       But the Internal Affairs Division at U.S. Customs and 
     Border Protection ruled differently nearly a year later and, 
     ultimately, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western 
     District of Texas brought charges.
       The Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council said the 
     government's case was ``based on false testimony that is 
     contradicted by the facts.''
       In a statement, the council said that because the arrest 
     took place at about 2 a.m., darkness would have made it 
     impossible for the government's witnesses to have seen 
     whether any mistreatment took place. It said Marcos Ramos, 
     the Border Patrol agent who stood next to Diaz, testified 
     that he did not see any mistreatment of the smuggling 
     suspect.
       The council said other witnesses made contradictory claims 
     and some later admitted to having perjured themselves. Such 
     admissions, the council said, were ignored by the court and 
     the government. It also said that probationary agents who 
     claimed to have witnessed the assault raised no objections 
     during the incident and failed to notify an on-duty 
     supervisor until hours later.
       ``Instead, they went off-duty to a local `Whataburger' 
     restaurant, got their stories straight and reported it hours 
     later to an off-duty supervisor at his home,'' the council 
     said. ``Then the `witnesses' went back to the station and 
     reported their allegations.''
       The council also noted that the teenager claimed no 
     injuries in court other than sore shoulders, which the 
     council attributed to ``the weight of the drug load, 
     approximately 75 pounds, he carried across the border.''
       The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of 
     Texas, which brought the charges, is the same office that in 
     February 2006--under U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton--prosecuted 
     Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean after 
     they shot a drug-smuggling suspect, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, 
     in the buttocks as he tried to flee back into Mexico after 
     abandoning a van filled with 800 pounds of marijuana. 
     Aldrete-Davila also was given immunity in the case and 
     testified against the agents.
       Agents Ramos and Compean were convicted and sentenced to 11 
     and 12 years in prison, respectively. President George W. 
     Bush commuted the sentences in 2009 after they had served two 
     years.
       The same prosecutors also charged Edwards County Deputy 
     Sheriff Gilmer Hernandez in 2005 with violating the civil 
     rights of a Mexican criminal alien after he shot out the 
     tires of a van filled with illegals as it tried to run him 
     over. One of the illegal immigrants in the van was hit with 
     bullet fragments.

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