House panel to conduct hearing in agents' case

Committee will look at possible influence of Mexico in prosecution
By Sara A. Carter, Staff Writer
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Article Launched:03/14/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT

A congressional hearing was granted Tuesday to look into the possible involvement of Mexico in the imprisonment of two former Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a Mexican national.

The hearing will focus on the Mexican government and the prosecution of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean. The agents were sentenced to 11 and 12 years, respectively, for shooting an admitted drug smuggler in the buttocks as he fled across the Texas-Mexico border.

The hearing, which has not been scheduled, will be conducted by the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight.

Chairman William Delahunt, D-Mass., called for the investigation at the request of senior committee member Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach.

"This subcommittee's jurisdiction is limited to the question as to whether there has been any foreign influence exerted in this case," Delahunt said Tuesday.