[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9679]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  THE JUSTICE SYSTEM SHOULD FREE BORDER AGENTS IGNACIO RAMOS AND JOSE 
                                COMPEAN

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. POE. Madam Speaker, border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean 
were the victims of an overzealous and media-hungry Federal prosecutor 
that seemed to be a political puppet of the Mexican government rather 
than seeking American justice.
  While patrolling the border, Ramos and Compean shot an illegal 
trespasser and drug dealer who was smuggling $1 million worth of dope 
across our border into Texas. Ironically, the two agents were tried for 
civil rights violations and sent to prison.
  Last year, a Federal judge said that the prosecution overreacted in 
this case. Here is what occurred. The drug dealer was given immunity to 
testify against the agents, and the bought-and-paid-for witness's 
testimony, believability, and credibility, was the basis of the entire 
prosecution. But the prosecutor hid from the jury that the drug 
smuggler witness continued to bring in drugs into the United States 
while the trial was pending; and the U.S. attorney has now admitted the 
back-room-deal witness also lied.
  Our justice system should free these two border agents because of the 
lying paid-for witness, and our government needs to get on the right 
side of the border war.
  And that's just the way it is.

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