I have never witnessed anything that equals the miscarriage of justice evidenced in the case of two courageous border patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean.
They are being imprisoned for risking their lives to protect ours from a violent Mexican illegal alien drug smuggler.
Ramos and Compean are not even allowed to remain with their families during an appeal process. They are the true victims of injustice — not the person who entered the United States illegally, transported 743 lbs. of marijuana illegally across the international border, assaulted a federal agent, and defied all of the rules outlined by our immigration statutes.
To top this, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, the smuggler, was given immunity by the U.S. government, in exchange for testifying against the agents.
He was actually brought back from Mexico to give testimony. And, according to one report, Aldrete-Davila was also guilty of a subsequent attempt to bring drugs into the United States. He is now suing the U.S. Border Patrol for $5 million. The White House and the attorney general have not responded to this situation with a single word, pro or con.
The government is sending a bad message to all law enforcement officers by putting these men in prison. In addition to tearing apart Ramos and Compean's families, it destroys the morale of law enforcement officers across the nation and undermines the public's faith in our system of justice.
The government had to choose between supporting a drug dealer or supporting their own border agents and they chose to support a drug dealer. The federal government is thus on the wrong side of the border. This action will encourage defiance by illegals and they will redouble in their smuggling efforts.
Already the shooting of 22-year-old Francisco Rivera has drawn condemnation from the new president of Mexico. So here we have the government of Mexico protesting the death of another illegal alien involved in another confrontation. In other words, this is just the beginning.
Now, as these two young men begin their prison terms leaving behind wives and a total of six young children, comes word that three members of the jury who ruled against them have retracted and now say that they were coerced in ruling against Ramos and Compean. Three jurors say they were coerced into convicting the two agents.
The two dedicated border patrolmen are now behind bars and the drug smuggler is free to go about his illicit traffic in drug pedaling and thumbing his nose at us all of us while justice weeps.
