Former Border Partol agents begin sentences

Surrender draws throngs of supporters

By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
El Paso Times

Article Launched:01/18/2007 12:00:00 AM MST

Tempers were flaring on both sides Wednesday as two former El Paso Border Patrol agents surrendered to the authorities to start lengthy prison sentences.

Family members of agent Ignacio Ramos, California Minutemen and Arizona bikers protested in front of the federal courthouse Wednesday afternoon. In Washington, D.C., U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., released a vitriolic statement chastising President Bush for not pardoning the agents. And the U.S. attorney's office retaliated by issuing a lengthy list of myths surrounding the case, which has become a cause celebre among conservative activists.

Former agents Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean surrendered at 1:30 p.m. to the U.S. Marshals Service office in the federal courthouse in Downtown El Paso, service officials said. The two were handcuffed and will be in custody, probably at the county jail, for two weeks to a month, until they can be transported to their assigned federal prisons. Rohrabacher said Ramos was assigned to a Mississippi prison, and Compean, to an Ohio prison.

It just so happens that at the same time that these men are going to prison for doing their jobs, protecting our sovereignty, attacks on border agents is on the increase. If you do not think there is a connection, you live in a bubble. Just as there are military personnel being prosecuted for doing their job in the Middle East, these border agents are on the frontlines protecting us. These types of prosecution at best "hamstrings" those protecting us and at worst could cause these men and women to hesitate which could end up in their death. -mm

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Special counsel sought for imprisoned border agents
Head of union wants probe of case against 'innocent men doing their job'
Posted: January 18, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

The head of a union representing most Border Patrol agents is calling on President Bush and Congress to appoint a special counsel to investigate the case of agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, who began prison sentences yesterday for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler.

TJ Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents 60 percent of the nation's agents, called the convictions an outrage.

"This case involves two innocent men doing their job, trying to secure our borders," he told WND. "They were defending themselves against an armed drug smuggler, and yet they end up in prison. How is that possible?"

On Tuesday, federal Judge Kathleen Cardone of El Paso, Texas, denied Ramos' and Compean's contention they were not a flight risk and rejected their motion to stay out of prison on bond while they appeal their case to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.