Free Republic

Environmental red tape is causing “long delays” for border agents as they try to fill tunnels used to smuggle people and dangerous drugs into the U.S. from Mexico, according to border officials and Republican lawmakers who have discussed the problem with agents. Frustrated agents complain the lengthy federal review process can stall critical tunnel-plugging efforts for months after passageways are first discovered. The tunnels are being used to move people, illegal drugs and even fake pharmaceuticals. But regulations stemming from laws like the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act are putting "remediation"...

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Guatemalan security forces have discovered a camp run by Mexico's most violent drug gang where traffickers trained dozens of gunmen, police said on Friday. Security forces were tipped off about suspicious activity at a ranch in Quiche, in the central highlands, by residents who said men in ski masks were asking villagers to join their ranks, police chief Marlene Blanco said at a news conference. Two commanders of the Zetas, the armed wing of Mexico's Gulf cartel, and 37 recruits fled the camp before the police and army arrived, leaving behind 500 grenades, six rifles and...

President Bush, who apparently uses the same pen for veto’s and pardons, has given out 14 and commuted the sentences of 2 others. All were pretty much low level scumbags who pretty much hurt no one but themselves, but what about the border agents? Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., noted that the list also did not include former Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were convicted of shooting a drug smuggler and trying to cover it up. Ramos and Compean are each serving sentences of more than 10 years for shooting Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks while...

Black Leader Condemns Bush for Not Pardoning or Commuting Sentences of Jailed Border Agents During Pre-Thanksgiving Round of Executive ClemencyWashington, D.C. - Project 21 Chairman Mychal Massie is condemning President Bush’s inaction regarding incarcerated Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean and is reiterating his call for a pardon or commutation of the agents' sentences before the President leaves office in January. Massie’s call comes as the White House has announced that President George W. Bush granted pre-Thanksgiving pardons to individuals involved in the distribution of drugs and bank embezzlement and commuted the sentences of two men given...

- - Tonight an outrageous move from the White House, President Bush pardoning 14 people, including drug dealers. But not former border patrol agents Ramos and Compean. DOBBS: President Bush today granted 14 pardons and he commuted two prison sentences. Five of those given clemency were convicted of serious drug charges. In what is an outrageous miscarriage of justice, former border patrols Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean serving lengthy prison sentences were not included on the president's list. They are serving those sentences for shooting and wounding an illegal alien drug dealer who they were pursuing and who was given...

Lou Dobbs Tonight Transcript - Kitty Pilgrim, Guest Anchor 11th Hour Pardons - Ramos & Compean Aired Tuesday, November 18, 2008 Are former border patrol agents Ramos and Compean closer to a presidential pardon? We'll have a special report PILGRIM: President Bush has issued only 157 pardons and commuted six prison sentences during his time in office. And the president still has 63 days left to consider remaining clemency requests and two of those requests are from Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. In a gross miscarriage of justice the two former border patrol agents were convicted of shooting and wounding...

The son of a U.S. Congressman from was arrested in Willcox Sunday, charged with human smuggling. According to court documents John F. Boyd son of Florida Congressman Allen Boyd, attempted to drive through a Border Patrol checkpoint in Willcox on Sunday with five illegal immigrants, including a 6-year-old girl. In a statement sent Tuesday, Congressman Allen Boyd said, "On September 14, 2008, my 30-year-old son, John Boyd, was arrested in Arizona, and at a preliminary hearing yesterday, he was charged with alien smuggling." "This is a family matter that my family and I will be dealing with privately. John is...

U.S. Border Patrol Agents are Still in Prison! Call the White House and Tell President Bush to Pardon Ramos and Compean! On February 17, 2005, U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were guarding the Mexican border near El Paso, TX when they intercepted a van carrying 743 pounds of marijuana. They attempted to prevent a Mexican drug-smuggler from crossing the border and illegally entering the United States. After the U.S. government intervened and granted immunity and a temporary visa to the illegal drug-smuggler in exchange for testimony against Ramos and Compean, the two border guards were convicted...

<p>A public relations war is waged as the two sides await a ruling on appeal.</p> <p>A jury decided Bill Simon's company committed fraud in a botched pay phone deal and awarded its former partner $78 million, but the ruling hasn't stopped the parties from bad-mouthing one another.</p>

An Afghan drug trafficker was beheaded by use of the sword Monday in the western Saudi province of Mecca, the Saudi interior ministry announced. Habibullah bin Rahmutallah was found guilty of smuggling heroin into the kingdom that he swallowed upon his arrest, the ministry said in a statement. The beheading took to 19 the number of executions in Saudi Arabia this year, according to interior ministry statements monitored by AFP. Riyadh applies a strict form of sharia, or Islamic law, imposing the death penalty for murder, rape, apostasy, armed robbery, drug trafficking and repeated drug use. In the year 2001,...