Former U.S. Border Patrol Agents Ramos And Compean

Floor Speech

FORMER U.S. BORDER PATROL AGENTS RAMOS AND COMPEAN -- (House of Representatives - May 21, 2007)

Mr. JONES of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, today is the 125th day since two U.S. Border Patrol agents entered Federal prison.

Agents Ramos and Compean were convicted in Federal court for wounding a Mexican drug smuggler who brought 743 pounds of marijuana across our border into Texas. These agents should have been commended for their actions, but instead the U.S. Attorney's Office prosecuted the agents and granted full immunity to the drug smuggler. The extraordinary details surrounding the prosecution of this case assure that justice has not been served.

In an interview this Friday, May 18, 2007, with Glenn Beck of CNN Headline News, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton again repeated a false claim about this case, stating that the agent shot ``an unarmed guy in the back.'' That is his quote.

Mr. Speaker, I do not know how anyone, especially this Federal prosecutor, would choose to accept the word of a criminal over two law enforcement officers who have sworn to uphold the Constitution and to protect the American people. Yet this prosecutor believed the word of a drug smuggler who claimed he was unarmed. It is a sad day in this Nation when a criminal has more influence over a Federal prosecutor than two law enforcement officers. I am going to repeat that, Mr. Speaker. It is a sad day in this Nation when a criminal has more influence over a Federal prosecutor than two law enforcement officers.

Both agents testified that the drug smuggler turned and pointed an object at them while he was running away, and they fired in self-defense. An Army doctor who removed the bullet fragment from the drug smuggler confirmed that the bullet entered into his lower left buttocks, passed through his pelvic triangle, and lodged in his right thigh, not in the back, as Mr. Sutton has repeatedly claimed. At the trial, the Army doctor testified that the drug smuggler's body was ``bladed'' away from the bullet that struck him, consistent with the motion of a left-handed person running away while pointing backward, causing the body to twist.

Mr. Speaker, there is only one logical object that the drug smuggler would have pointed at the agents in this circumstance: a firearm.

In addition to this physical evidence, an article published by the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin on October 26, 2006, quotes two of the drug smuggler's family members who said, and I quote, ``He has been smuggling drugs since he was 14 and would not move drugs unless he had a gun on him.'' That is his own family that made a statement.

The facts have shown what countless citizens and Members of Congress already know: That the U.S. Attorneys office was on the wrong side of this issue and this case.

I am pleased and grateful that Chairman Conyers and Chairman Leahy have shown interest in holding hearings to investigate the injustice committed against these two Border Patrol agents. The conviction of these two agents is a travesty that cries out for oversight, and I hope that Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle will say thank you to Mr. Conyers and also to Chairman Leahy because they are willing to look for the truth and justice instead of injustice.

And I call on the President of the United States to, please, Mr. President, look at this case and pardon these two border agents that were only trying to protect the American people.

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