Border Patrol Agents Sentenced to Long Prison Terms

Two U.S. Border Patrol Agents were sentenced to 11 and 12 year prison terms yesterday for attempting to stop an illegal immigrant smuggling 743 pounds of Marijuana in a van near the Rio Grande. They agents were sentenced despite a request by their attorney for a new trial after three jurors signed sworn affidavits saying that they were coerced into entering a guilty vote.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, Texas gave Jose Alanso Compean and Ignacio Ramos lengthy sentences beginning January 17, 2007 and The U.S. Border Patrol fired the agents after their conviction by a federal jury.

Compean and Ramos attempted to stop the illegal Mexican national, Osbaldo Adrete-Davila in his van near Faben, Texas. When Adrete-Davila resisted and fled, he was shot in the buttocks by the officers and escaped into a van waiting on the Mexico side of the Rio Grande River. Adrete-Davila was not in the courtroom yesterday saying he was “physically incapacitated” and is filing a claim with the Border Patrol for $5 million for negligence.

The man found illegally in the United States, smuggling nearly 750 pounds of marijuana now has immunity protecting him from being charged as a drug smuggler. This, after an investigator from the Office of the Inspector General (whose salary comes from taxpayer dollars) traveled to Mexico to retrieve the man – not for drug smuggling or illegal entry, but so that he could enjoy his civil rights.

And the jury that convicted the officers? Three of them signed affidavits stating, “That they were told by the jury foreman that the judge would not accept a hung jury.” In what kind of justice system are officers of the law convicted for pursuing criminals by a jury that is not convinced they are guilty? Even ultra-liberal Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein doesn’t agree with the way the case was handled. Last week, she called for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the case, alleging that the conviction was “a serious miscarriage of justice.”

Texas Representative Ted Poe also released a statement saying, “It seems to me the U.S. government is on the wrong side of the law – It is appalling to me that our own government would give immunity to an illegal drug smuggler in their effort to prosecute these two brave young men who were simply doing their job – protecting the dignity of our borders and our country.”

The U.S. Government in on the wrong side of the law – and Osbaldo Adrete-Davila was on the wrong side of the border. He should be charged for drug smuggling and deported — not brought back to the U.S., coddled and allowed to file a civil rights complaint.