[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 1223]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             POLITICAL PRISONERS RAMOS AND COMPEAN, PART II

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, well, it has finally happened. Mr. 
Speaker, President Bush, in one of his last acts as President of the 
United States, commuted the sentences of political prisoners Border 
Patrol agents Ramos and Compean who were just doing their job down on 
the violent Texas-Mexico border when they were prosecuted because they 
happened to shoot a drug dealer who was smuggling in $750,000 worth of 
narcotics.
  It is good that President Bush has commuted their sentence. We hope 
to press further with the new President, President Obama, and get a 
complete pardon for these two individuals. But there already has been 
an effect of this commutation. You see right away, the Mexican 
government, in its self-righteous indignation, disapproves of the 
commutation of Ramos and Compean. Obviously, if the Mexican government 
is opposed to it, President Bush did the right thing. And who cares 
what the Mexican Government thinks about the United States enforcing 
its dignity and enforcing the rule of law and keeping drug smugglers 
from Mexico out of coming into the United States. So that was obviously 
the right decision if the Mexican Government is opposed to President 
Bush's decision.
  But also, it will have an effect, hopefully, on our border agents. 
You see, since this case and other cases where our Federal Government 
chooses to prosecute border protectors instead of prosecuting criminals 
who come into the United States, like drug smugglers, since that has 
occurred so often, our border protectors have been reluctant to enforce 
the rule of law. And when they see a situation on the border from San 
Diego to Brownsville, Texas, that may turn out to be violent, they have 
backed off. And the reason they have backed off is because our Federal 
Government refuses to protect them when they get themselves in a scrape 
protecting us and the dignity of the United States. Now maybe our 
Federal Government will prosecute criminals, drug smugglers, human 
smugglers who come into the United States, emphasize prosecuting them 
rather than emphasizing prosecuting Border Patrol agents who are doing 
their job just to protect the rest of us.
  One statistic, Mr. Speaker. Last year, 2008, 1,097 violent assaults 
were committed against American Border Patrol agents on the southern 
border of the United States. Of course we don't read about that in the 
newspaper. We only read about the drug dealers who get shot by our 
Border Patrol agents. So 1,097 violent assaults against people who we 
send down to that violent border to protect us from criminals that are 
coming into the United States. Three a day occur, and we can suspect 
that probably three a day have occurred this year. It is important that 
our government prosecute those assaults, those people who commit crimes 
against our border agents when they sneak into the United States, many 
of them to commit crimes in the United States.
  It has also gotten so violent on the Texas border that a local 
sheriff in Hildago County, Lupe Trevino, has issued automatic weapons 
to his sheriff's deputies, and has told them to use those weapons if 
they are fired upon. That is a new policy. That is how violent the 
border is, and they are all down there just protecting us.
  One of the reasons they protect us is because of America's 
unfortunate but tremendous greed for illicit drugs. And because we have 
an appetite for narcotics in this United States, the drug dealers are 
willing to supply them. That is another issue. This country has to get 
around to solving that appetite that we have as a Nation for illicit 
drugs.
  So we have that appetite and we send our Border Patrol agents down to 
the border to keep those drugs from coming into the United States, and 
then if one of them gets in a scrape, we prosecute them rather than the 
drug dealers. Maybe those times have changed because of this 
commutation. I certainly hope so.
  And we certainly can't expect the Mexican Government to do their 
part. We hear constant reports of corruption in Mexico, especially with 
Mexican officials on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande River. That is 
unfortunate because they have an obligation to protect Mexican citizens 
as well as we on this side have an obligation to protect American 
citizens.
  Border protectors need to know we support them. Back in the days of 
Vietnam, some of us remember those days when our troops came home, how 
they were treated. They were treated with utmost disrespect, 
unfortunately. And we have changed. Our country has changed. We show 
great respect to our troops that are in Afghanistan and Kosovo and 
Iraq, and we should because they are protecting us.
  Our border protectors down on the border, our Border Patrol agents 
and our border sheriffs, need to know that America stands behind them 
as well because they are fighting a war just as important and just as 
violent as those troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are fighting. And they 
need to know that we will support them when they do their job, when 
they enforce the rule of law to keep people out of this country that 
are coming over here to smuggle drugs. Our Federal Government needs to 
get on the right side of the border war.
  And that's just the way it is.

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