[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 1933-1934]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 STATEMENT ON PRESIDENTIAL PARDON FOR TWO U.S. BORDER PATROL AGENTS IN 
                             FEDERAL PRISON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 4, 2007, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES of North Carolina. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. Speaker, now is a critical time in the case of two United States 
Border Patrol agents. Last week, the agents turned themselves in to 
U.S. marshals to begin serving 11 and 12 years, respectively, in 
Federal prison. U.S. Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean were 
convicted last spring for wounding a Mexican drug smuggler who brought 
743 pounds of marijuana across our southern border into Texas. The 
agents fired shots during a foot chase with the smuggler, who had fled 
in a van they were pursuing. The van contained approximately $1 million 
worth of marijuana.
  Mr. Speaker, after months of silence, the President recently said in 
a television interview that he would take a sober look at the case and 
a tough look at the facts to see whether the agents should be pardoned. 
For the agents' safety, I am hopeful that the President of the United 
States will look into this case as soon as possible.
  The facts will tell the President what countless citizens and Members 
of Congress already know, that the United States Attorney's office was 
on the wrong side in this case. Compelling physical evidence--the angle 
of the bullet that struck the drug smuggler--makes it clear that the 
smuggler was pointing something at the agents as he ran away and the 
agents fired in self-defense. Yet the U.S. Attorney's office prosecuted 
the agents almost exclusively on the testimony of an admitted drug 
smuggler who claimed he was unarmed. Despite claims of insufficient 
evidence, the fact that the U.S. Attorney's office and Office of 
Inspector General were able to track down this smuggler in Mexico 
proves that they had enough evidence to tie him to the drug load, but 
they chose not to prosecute him. Instead, Mr. Speaker, the United 
States Attorney's office prosecuted the agents and granted immunity to 
the drug smuggler for his testimony against our border agents. That is 
absolutely unacceptable.
  The drug smuggler received full medical care in El Paso, Texas, was 
permitted to return to Mexico, and is now suing the Border Patrol for 
$5 million for violating his civil rights. Contrary to the claims of 
the United States attorney, there is no law that requires the 
government to give medical assistance to injured illegal aliens. This 
drug smuggler is not an American citizen. He is a criminal. Since the 
agents were convicted, three of the 12 jurors have submitted sworn 
statements that they were misled into believing that there could be no 
dissent in the jury's decision and therefore believed that they had to 
give in to the majority opinion of guilt. Still, the judge refused to 
overturn the verdict.
  Mr. Speaker, the extraordinary details surrounding the prosecution of 
this case assures that justice has not been served. For the sake of the 
agents and their families and for the sake of the American people who 
they were working to protect, I encourage the President to review the 
facts of this case as soon as possible. In addition to the 250,000 
petitions that have been collected on behalf of the agents, the 
American people and Members of Congress should encourage the President 
to review this case. I hope that the Members of Congress and the 
American people will call the White House and ask the President to 
immediately reverse this injustice by pardoning these two innocent men.

[[Page 1934]]



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