[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6753]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    RELEASE THE BORDER PATROL AGENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, it has been 16 months since two of America's 
border protectors have been locked up in Federal prison in solitary 
confinement. Ramos and Compean tonight are in two different places in 
the United States but both are in a Federal penitentiary for enforcing 
the law that we have entrusted them to enforce on the Texas-Mexico 
border.
  Now, we understand that in this case, the case that was based upon 
the testimony of a drug smuggler that brought drugs worth $750,000 into 
the United States, the entire Federal Government's case was based upon 
his testimony. His testimony, when the Federal Government gave him a 
back-room deal, promised not to prosecute him, let him go back and 
forth across the Texas-Mexico border, all for his testimony to testify 
against two border agents, claiming in his testimony that he was 
unarmed when he was shot fleeing the two border agents a couple of 
years ago when he brought drugs into the United States.
  Now, we know that while he was waiting to testify, this star witness, 
this back-room deal witness, he brought another load of drugs into the 
United States, and the U.S. Attorney's Office kept that from the jury 
that was hearing the case against Ramos and Compean. The U.S. 
Attorney's Office denied for months that that ever occurred, and 
finally, the truth came out when Members of Congress found out about 
it.
  And last week, the drug smuggler, the back-room deal witness, the 
witness whose testimony was bought at a price of freedom, was convicted 
in Federal prison for bringing in that load of drugs the U.S. 
Attorney's Office denied ever occurred.
  Mr. Speaker, Ramos and Compean were convicted on tainted testimony, 
testimony that, as the U.S. Attorney's Office admitted before Congress, 
had some lies in it said by this star, back-room witness. And it's time 
that these two individuals be pardoned, that their case be reversed, 
that the next year we find out the truth that the U.S. Attorney's 
Office hid that second deal. All the while, let's leave the drug dealer 
in the Federal penitentiary where drug dealers belong.
  And that's just the way it is.

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