Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Not a pardonable offense (Border Patrol Barf Alert)
San Diego tribune ^ | 02/10/2007 | Ruben Navarrette

Posted on 02/10/2007 2:05:41 PM PST by TheeOhioInfidel

For an agent of the Mexican government, Johnny Sutton speaks pretty good English.

That's the title anti-immigrant zealots hung on the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas after prosecutors in his office convicted ex-Border Patrol agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos of shooting 15 times at an unarmed suspect who was running away.

Sentenced to 12 years and 11 years in prison, the former agents are behind bars.

Because the defendants were once Border Patrol agents and because the convictions relied on testimony from the victim - a Mexican drug smuggler who got immunity - the prosecutors have become absolutely toxic in the minds of those who think an invasion is under way and that Border Patrol agents are the sentries against the tide.

Hence the accusation by some that Sutton - along with his bosses, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and President Bush - has become an agent of the Mexican government.

"We just evaluate the facts," Sutton said. "We don't get to choose the facts. We don't get to choose the witnesses. We just have to decide whether a crime was committed and whether it's appropriate that it be prosecuted."

According to the evidence presented at the trial, including the agents' testimony and their statements after the incident, here are the facts.

On Feb. 17, 2005, about 1 p.m., Compean and Ramos were on duty along the U.S.-Mexico border when they observed a suspicious vehicle - a van that turned out to be loaded with 700 pounds of marijuana.

The driver - later identified as Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila - jumped out of the vehicle and tried to run back into Mexico.

Ramos and Compean testified they made a point of looking at the suspect's hands and saw no weapon. Compean fired at least 14 rounds and Ramos fired once.

Ramos wounded the suspect and saw him limp into Mexico. The agents collected the shell casings and filed false reports, trying to cover up the incident.

The case has become a cause célèbre for radio talk-show hosts, anti-immigrant groups, congressional Republicans, Minuteman vigilantes and cable television talkers with a knack for turning ranting into ratings.

The convictions also have been sucked into the wind tunnel of the immigration debate and turned Republican hard-liners into bleeding hearts.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, wrote a resolution demanding that Bush pardon Compean and Ramos.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, has called Bush a "disgrace" and someone who is "on the side of our enemies."

Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach - who used to be a lobbyist for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a nativist organization that wants to limit even legal immigration - quipped that, since Bush wants amnesty for 12 million illegal immigrants, he should simply add two more names to the list.

Basically, Bilbray lumped together former Border Patrol agents with illegal immigrants. What would the two have in common? Only Spanish surnames.

Apparently, you can take the congressman out of the nativist group but you can't take the nativism out of the congressman.

I asked Sutton about the insistence by some that this case illustrates the contempt the Bush administration has for border security and the Border Patrol.

"I don't take it too seriously," he said. "I'm a federal prosecutor in charge of prosecuting drugs and immigration for 660 miles of Mexican-Texas border. I'm in the business of locking up illegal aliens who come across and drug smugglers who come across, and so I work with Border Patrol day in and day out."

Sutton said he has a lot of respect for the Border Patrol and its responsibilities.

"They do have a very, very hard job," he said. "And 99.9 percent of them are out there doing it right, abiding by the rules in these very stressful situations, and they're doing just fine. But when you're in those kinds of high-stress situations, you can make big mistakes."

By all accounts, these agents made big mistakes. The same goes for those who are shamelessly using this sad case to advance their own agendas.

"It's just so rare that you have a situation like this," Sutton said. "But (Border Patrol agents) are human beings, and sometimes, just like anyone else, they're going to step over the line, and if they commit crimes, just like everybody else, they're not above the law."

Bush has said he will examine the case and determine if a pardon is warranted.

It isn't.

Navarrette is a columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune. His e-mail address is ruben.navarrette@uniontrib.com.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections; US: California; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: aliens; bologna; border; borderagents; borderpatrol; immigrantlist; immigration; pardonamericanheroes; rubennavarrette; wod
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-119 next last
Navarrette is a columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune. His e-mail address is

ruben.navarrette@uniontrib.com

This guy is stupid. I've already emailed him.

1 posted on 02/10/2007 2:05:43 PM PST by TheeOhioInfidel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: TheeOhioInfidel

If he does get it he sure is trying hard to convince us he doesn't.


2 posted on 02/10/2007 2:11:07 PM PST by freekitty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TheeOhioInfidel
Typical of the leftist pro-invasion moonbats. Load the story with tons of weasel-words and hyperbole. Twist the facts and the time line, Make the poor gooberment lackeys the victim of a right-wing jihad. This guy is a real classic example of what is wrong with the press in the US.
3 posted on 02/10/2007 2:11:32 PM PST by xcamel (Press to Test, Release to Detonate)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ajnin; Arizona Carolyn; Calpernia; CAluvdubya; christynsoldier; Cyropaedia; dennisw; Digger; ...

Ruben Navarette Ping! (barf alert is appropriate)


4 posted on 02/10/2007 2:12:44 PM PST by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TheeOhioInfidel

"You cannot make and official act, done under color of law, and without criminal intent and from a sense of public duty, a crime."

John Bingham, co-author 14th amendment


5 posted on 02/10/2007 2:14:10 PM PST by AZRepublican ("The degree in which a measure is necessary can never be a test of the legal right to adopt it.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TheeOhioInfidel

Unfortunately, Navarrette actually gets widely published. I've seen this same article listed in other publications (under different titles) for about the last week.


6 posted on 02/10/2007 2:17:49 PM PST by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TheeOhioInfidel

"This guy is stupid. I've already emailed him."




It won't do any good, the San Diego Union is a pro Mexican newspaper, and was before they made Navarrette their dominate voice, at one time they tried adding a Spanish language page to that section.






7 posted on 02/10/2007 2:17:59 PM PST by ansel12 (America, love it ,or at least give up your home citizenship before accepting ours too.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TheeOhioInfidel
It is amazing how lazy the press has become. Just quote the DA, don't bother investigating, don't question questionable assertions, just let your friends tell you how it is and report what they told you.

I just spent last week witnessing a senior DA prosecute a friend of mine for carrying a concealed weapon with a permit in the airport. The DA wanted a felony! The DA conveniently lost much of the exculpatory evidence, and lied on several occasions to the jury. The jury did not buy it (thank God!). My friend had legal authority and no motive. But, I witnessed how a DA can stack the deck against someone, imtimadate them, even lie. I don't trust them anymore, I just can't figure out why the press would!

8 posted on 02/10/2007 2:22:11 PM PST by DaveyB (Ignorance is part of the human condition - atheism makes it permanent!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TheeOhioInfidel

I've read other pro-illegal articles from this man.


9 posted on 02/10/2007 2:22:14 PM PST by Arizona Carolyn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TheeOhioInfidel
"... I'm in the business of locking up illegal aliens who come across and drug smugglers who come across ..." [- Johnny Sutton]

Not this time you weren't.
10 posted on 02/10/2007 2:22:57 PM PST by canuck_conservative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TheeOhioInfidel

Guys like Navarette aren't the problem. The main problem sits in the White House like a potted plant.


11 posted on 02/10/2007 2:23:03 PM PST by Ikemeister
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TheeOhioInfidel
At least it was in the Opinion section.

What is the border patrol supposed to do? Ensure a safe crossing to drug smugglers and other criminals?

The Federal Government's lack of attention to the border issues goes against the spirit of the Constitution which was enacted to "provide for the common defense". And because the have so long looked the other way, they have created a huge problem. Now, they charge those guarding our border with attempted murder?

12 posted on 02/10/2007 2:23:21 PM PST by PatrickF4 (Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought. - JP II)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: AZRepublican

If the facts are as reported above, I'd saw there was criminal intent. Trying to cover it up is a good evidence.


13 posted on 02/10/2007 2:24:33 PM PST by ItisaReligionofPeace
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: calcowgirl
Unfortunately, Navarrette actually gets widely published. I've seen this same article listed in other publications (under different titles) for about the last week.

Regurgitated food for the gullibale masses. Add the double-speak of the pragmatists, and the public remains at best confused. And he obviously hates Duncan Hunter. I am so sick of these amnesty establishment sympathizers.

14 posted on 02/10/2007 2:26:08 PM PST by TheeOhioInfidel (ATTENTION: THERE IS A REAL CONSERVATIVE RUNNING IN '08: DUNCAN HUNTER)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: ItisaReligionofPeace

>If the facts are as reported above, I'd saw there was criminal intent. Trying to cover it up is a good evidence.<

What, pick up shell casings? They assumed, and there was no evidence, that they had hit no one, therefore there was no crime scene. Two supervisors were on site and fully aware there was multiple discharges of firearms.


15 posted on 02/10/2007 2:28:51 PM PST by AZRepublican ("The degree in which a measure is necessary can never be a test of the legal right to adopt it.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: TheeOhioInfidel
Hence the accusation by some that Sutton - along with his bosses, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and President Bush - has become an agent of the Mexican government.

I've been wondering, is it true that Bush's presidential library is going to be built in Mexico City, Mexico?

16 posted on 02/10/2007 2:30:23 PM PST by RJL
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TheeOhioInfidel

The agents collected the shell casings and filed false reports, trying to cover up the incident.



Why did they do this???? This is probably the reason they are in jail and most likely the reason they have not been pardoned yet. I just don't like the idea they covered it up. Am I alone in this bothering me?


17 posted on 02/10/2007 2:35:59 PM PST by napscoordinator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: calcowgirl

Barf alert is too mild. This drivel called for a (PUKE ALERT) in big red three inch letters.


18 posted on 02/10/2007 2:38:22 PM PST by F.J. Mitchell (Democrats: Too dumb to lead, too vain to follow, too egotistical to get the hell out of the way!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

To: TheeOhioInfidel
"We just evaluate the facts," Sutton said. "We don't get to choose the facts. We don't get to choose the witnesses.

Mr. Sutton, you are a liar. The court record shows your office made dozens of motions to exclude witness and facts you didn't want on the record.

20 posted on 02/10/2007 2:40:01 PM PST by investigateworld (Abortion stops a beating heart)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-119 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson