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“UNJUST PROSECUTION OF FORMER U.S. BORDER PATROL AGENTS RAMOS AND COMPEAN” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H7991 on Sept. 10, 2008.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
UNJUST PROSECUTION OF FORMER U.S. BORDER PATROL AGENTS RAMOS AND
COMPEAN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I met with Monica Ramos, the wife of imprisoned U.S. border patrol agent Ignacio Ramos. I also met with her father, Mr. Joe Loya.
As the Members of this House are aware, in February of 2006, Agents Ramos and Compean were convicted of shooting and wounding a Mexican drug smuggler who brought $1 million worth of marijuana across our border into Texas. The two agents were sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison respectively. They have been in Federal prison, in solitary confinement, for 595 days.
Mr. Speaker, I continue to be distressed by the actions of U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton and the prosecutors in this case.
Like thousands of Americans across the country, I was extremely disappointed by the ruling announced on July 28, 2008, by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Court affirmed all convictions except those for tampering with an official proceeding, but this case is not closed.
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A conviction secured on the testimony of a known drug smuggler should not stand. The same drug smuggler who told the Ramos and Compean jury that he did not carry a gun the day of the shooting also told the jury he was just a one-time offender who needed money for his sick mother. Since the agents' conviction, however, the Mexican drug smuggler was convicted for additional smuggling offenses. His testimony against the agents has been proven completely unreliable.
Those of us who have urged a pardon for Ramos and Compean will continue to support them in their future legal appeals, and we will work tirelessly to ensure that the miscarriage of justice is corrected. The details of this case deserve an unbiased review by the U.S. Department of Justice. I have also asked John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to hold hearings to examine the prosecution of these agents who were doing their job to protect our border.
Questions surrounding the prosecution of this case deserve to be answered. For example, why was not the jury allowed to hear crucial evidence that the smuggler was a repeated offender? And why did the prosecutor charge the agents under a statute that was intended for violent criminals carrying guns, not for law enforcement officers acting in the line of duty?
Mr. Speaker, nothing can erase the suffering these agents have undergone and the months they have spent in prison in solitary confinement away from their families, but I want the families of Ramos and Compean to know that my colleagues on both sides of the political aisle and I will continue to do all we can to see this miscarriage of justice corrected. It is my hope and prayer that one day soon these two heros will be home with their families.
Mr. Speaker, I close by asking God to continue to bless our men and women in uniform and their families. And I ask God to please continue to bless the families of agents Ramos and Compean. And I ask God to continue to bless America.
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