Border agents plead for 'Christmas pardon'

Congressman hosts rally asking Bush to stop 'miscarriage of justice'
Posted: December 20, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Art Moore
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

A Border Patrol agent sentenced to prison along with his partner for shooting and wounding a man smuggling drugs into the U.S. will appear with a congressman tomorrow at a rally asking President Bush to offer a pardon.

Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos, were sentenced to 12 years and 11 years, respectively, in October by U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, Texas. The drug smuggler was granted immunity for his testimony.

Compean will be joined by family; Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R, Calif.; Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist; and members of other border-security groups such as Friends of the Border Patrol at the courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., at 10:30 a.m. Pacific time tomorrow.

Rohrabacher, noting the president already has received a letter about the case from more than 50 Congress members, is asking Americans to sign petitions and send e-mails and letters to the White House requesting a "Christmas pardon."

Grassfire.org has an online petition calling on Bush to pardon the agents, with more than 130,000 signatures.

"This is the greatest miscarriage of justice that I've seen in my career," Rohrabacher told WND. "Two brave Border Patrol agents trying to enforce the president's nonsensical border policy ending up being sent to prison, while an illegal alien drug smuggler is given immunity and walks free."