Congressional posse rides
to help jailed border agents

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., plans to introduce an amendment tomorrow intended to get former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean released from prison immediately.

Tancredo, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, plans to attach his amendment to H.R. 3093, the appropriations bill for the Departments of Commerce, Justice and Science, stating that none of the funds may be used to carry out the 11- and 12-year sentences imposed respectively on Ramos and Compean by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

"Americans have been waiting months for the president to right this wrong, and I am not going to wait any longer," Tancredo said in a press release. "It's time that the Congress took matters into its own hands."

(Story continues below)

A jury last year convicted Ramos and Compean of violating federal gun laws and covering up the shooting of a drug smuggler as he fled back to Mexico after driving across the border with more than 700 pounds of marijuana. U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton's office gave the smuggler, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, immunity to serve as the government's star witness and testify against the border agents.

Tancredo's amendment is grounded in Article I of the U.S. Constitution, which provides Congress with the absolute authority over spending matters.

Carlos Espinosa, spokesman to Tancredo, told WND that while the "Get-Out-of-Jail-Now" measure is unconventional, it is not unprecedented.

"This wouldn't be the first time Congress has stepped in and used its authority under the Constitution to overturn a brainless decision by a federal court," Espinosa said.

On July 23, 2003, the House approved 260-161 an amendment to an appropriations bill introduced by Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., that prevented the Bush administration from using any funding to enforce a the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that barred the display of the Ten Commandments by Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore at the state judicial building. Ultimately, the controversy was resolved when the Alabama Supreme Court intervened Aug. 24, 2004, and voted unanimously to overrule Moore.

Espinosa said the amendment's aim is to affect an immediate "congressional commutation of sentence" by withholding the funds needed to keep Ramos and Compean in prison.

Tancredo's measure adds to the congressional pressure for pardoning or otherwise releasing Ramos and Compean that has built since President Bush issued a commutation for the 30-month sentence of former White House aide Scooter Libby.

On July 20, Rep. John Culberson, R–Texas, and 20 of his House colleagues sent a letter to President Bush requesting he immediately commute the Ramos and Compean sentences.

Culberson and his House colleagues tied their argument to President Bush's July 2 praise of Libby when issuing the commutation of that sentence. Bush characterized Libby as a first-time offender with years of exceptional service who had been handed a harsh sentence.

Culberson and his 20 House associates wrote that, "Ramos and Compean were outstanding Border Patrol agents (Ramos had been previously nominated for Border Patrol Agent of the Year) and were handed extremely harsh sentences while key pieces of evidence, including evidence of a second load of drugs that was brought into the country by the drug smuggler after the shooting, were not presented to the jury."

"These agents were unjustly prosecuted for doing their job," Culberson says in a statement on the homepage of his House website. "This case has created a chilling effect along the border, and law enforcement personnel tell me they are now hesitant to draw their weapons. It is undoubtedly harming national security at a time when terrorists are attempting to enter and target the United States.

"Since President Bush recently commuted the sentence of Scooter Libby because it was too harsh," Culberson argues on his website, "he should do the same for Ramos and Compean. We will not rest until they are returned home to their families."

As WND reported, following last week's hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, co-authored a letter also asking President Bush to commute the agents' sentences.

Taking questions from members of the Chamber of Commerce in Nashville Thursday, President Bush declined to promise to pardon Ramos and Compean.

"I'm not going to make that kind of promise in a forum like this," Bush said at the event, which focused on his budget.

The president defended Sutton as "a dear friend of mine" and called him a "fair guy" and "even-handed," according to a White House transcript.

Special offers:

"PREMEDITATED MERGER: How leaders are stealthily transforming USA into North American Union"

Autographed! – Pat Buchanan unleashed on border crisis

Tom Tancredo: America itself "In Mortal Danger"

Get Minutemen founder's new book

"Conquest of Aztlan": Will Mexicans retake American Southwest?

---

Previous stories:

Bush won't promise to pardon border agents

Feinstein to Bush: Free Ramos, Compean

Sutton grilled in Ramos-Compean hearing

After Libby, Bush pushed to pardon border agents

Gil Hernandez 'fears for his life'

Ignacio Ramos reported in 'emaciated' condition

Border Patrol agent vindicated

Sheriff sees pattern in border agents' cases

Feds seeking 7 years for another Texas cop

Justice urged to release Ramos-Compean documents

Records prompt call for new Ramos-Compean trial

Congressman: Bush 'doesn't give a damn'

Cop called 'double agent' in Ramos-Compean case

Ramos, Compean release on bond nixed

Border agents' case inspires song

Feinstein still probing Ramos-Compean case

Judicial Watch seeks records in Ramos-Compean case

Sheriff: Deputy prosecuted by Mexico's demand

Senate hearings on Ramos-Compean postponed

Smuggler's 2nd drug case confirmed by accomplice

Ramos attorney calls for mistrial

Smuggler's 2nd delivery of marijuana confirmed

Congressman: Probe Mexico's role in prosecutions

Mexico demanded U.S. prosecute sheriff, agents

Discrepancies in case against Border Patrol unresolved

Compean reports reading half of Bible already

How cozy was Border Patrol with smuggler?

Border Patrol agents fired for changing testimonies

Drug smuggler left cell phone in van

Border-agent investigator had tie to smuggler

Author of DHS border-agent report lied to Congress

Officials urged to resign for lie about border agents

Government admits lying about jailed border agents

Imprisoned border agent did report shooting

Imprisoned border agent beaten by fellow inmates

Prosecutor had evidence against drug smuggler

Poe seeks 'public' documents on border agents

Prosecutor accused of hiding smuggler's 2nd drug bust

Homeland Security memos contradict U.S. attorney

Uproar over border agents to get White House review

Feds 'knew smuggler' in Border Patrol case

Ballistics data don't support charge against border agents

Funds set up for Border Patrol agents

Congressman: Feds stonewalling on border agents

Border agent's wife at State of the Union

Revolt builds as Republicans seek to toss border agents' convictions

Border Patrol agent held in solitary confinement

Imprisoned agent's wife: President is a hypocrite

Border agents' prosecutor responds to critics

Border agents sent to prison

Border agents plead for 'Christmas pardon'

White House clarifies 'nonsensical' comment'

12 congressmen demand pardon for border agents

Snow says question on agents' prison time 'nonsensical'

Border Patrol agents sentenced to prison

National Guard units to be armed, close to the border

Gang expert backs Tancredo charge

National Guard units to be armed, close to the border

No militarization of U.S.-Mex border

Not even killer flu to shut U.S. border

Chertoff downplays Mexican military incursions

'Shoot illegals' comment earns host FCC complaint

Another armed incursion on U.S.-Mexico border

Texas border standoff with Mexican military

Border Patrol warned: Brace for violence

Feds to border agents: Assassins targeting you

Armed standoff on Rio Grande

Border sheriff warns: We're overwhelmed

Mexican drug commandos expand ops in 6 U.S. states

It's war between cops in Mexico

The threat from Mexico

'It's a war' along Mexican border

Mexican commandos seek control of border

Mexican commandos new threat on border

Border Patrol agents shot in Laredo

Mexicans shoot at Border Patrol