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In a complex decision, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the major counts against former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean but reversed the obstruction of justice counts and sent the case back to a lower court for resentencing.

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, a friend of W, is making the rounds defending every aspect of his case against Ramos and Compean. He's got an answer for every question. The only problem is that when he's finished answering the questions and demeaning the character of these two agents in every way imaginable, his official actions still reek of rank injustice. He doesn't understand that. Bush doesn't get it. But the American people, members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, look at what he did in the case candidly, honestly and objectively and conclude it was wrong – just plain wrong....

A congressional aide who visited Ignacio Ramos in prison said the convicted Border Patrol agent appeared emaciated, losing more than 30 pounds in solitary confinement. Ramos, who is appealing his 11-year sentence for the non-lethal shooting of a Mexican drug smuggler, has been in a "special housing unit" since he was beaten by inmates in February at the medium-security Federal Correctional Complex in Yazoo City, Miss., said Tara Setmayer, spokeswoman for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. "He was very happy to see me, but, overall, he was very emotional," Setmayer told WND. "He is demoralized. Languishing in solitary for 135 days...

ESCONDIDO -- Relatives of a U.S. Border Patrol agent convicted of shooting a drug smuggling suspect in Texas and then lying about it spoke about the family's ordeal at a church service Sunday. "It's just been a nightmare," Monica Ramos told an Escondido congregation. "I never thought I'd be standing here, being my husband's voice." Ramos's husband, Ignacio Ramos, and fellow former agent Jose Alonso Compean were convicted last year of shooting Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, a drug smuggling suspect, as the man fled across the Rio Grande near El Paso, Texas, into Mexico after a confrontation with the agents.

If the illegal immigration situation were not bad enough, evidence accumulating from attempts to unearth the true facts concerning the arrest and conviction of Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean suggest strongly that the United States government is not only trying to placate the Mexican government, but is actually carrying out policies demanded by Mexico.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., an ardent critic of illegal immigration who is pondering a run for the White House, spent about an hour Friday with Ignacio Ramos, one of two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a suspected drug dealer and trying to cover up the incident. The case has become a major cause among conservative talk shows and lawmakers in Washington who believe the agents were wrongly convicted and are asking for a Congressional investigation and a pardon from President Bush," Cox News reported on its media blog Friday afternoon. "Tancredo said in a telephone interview that Ramos showed...

A liberal reader rightly points out that Johnny Sutton, the federal prosecutor of the Border Control Agents, has close ties to the Bush Administration. That doesn’t mean that overall Bush supporters, like me, are going to agree with everything done in its name. On illegal immigration, education reform, McCain-Feingold, and the Terry Schiavo case, to name a few examples, many conservatives, like myself, have serious disagreements with Bush; and we are not going to play ‘nice’ and go away on this issue.

EL PASO, Texas - A federal report released Wednesday on the shooting of a suspected drug smuggler by Border Patrol agents concurs with prosecutors that the men failed to report the shooting, destroyed evidence and lied to investigators. Some members of Congress have criticized the case against Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, who were fired after their obstruction of justice convictions and have each been sentenced to more than a decade in federal prison. Congressional critics, who say the men were doing their jobs when they injured Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila in 2005 near El Paso, had sought the release of...

A Republican congressman is calling for the resignation of Department of Homeland Security officials who he says lied about the case of two Border Patrol agents imprisoned for their actions in the shooting of a drug smuggler. As WND reported, at a congressional hearing yesterday, Rep. John Culberson of Texas confronted DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner about his agency's claim it had documentary proof of the guilt of former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. "Richard Skinner admitted yesterday under oath that his top deputies gave members of Congress false information painting Border Patrol agents as rogue cops who were...

EL PASO, Texas — A former Border Patrol agent who was convicted of shooting a drug smuggling suspect and then lying about it has been beaten by fellow inmates in prison. Prison officials on Tuesday confirmed assertions by a congressman and relatives of Ignacio Ramos. He was attacked Saturday night after his case was described on the TV show "America's Most Wanted," the officials said. Ramos suffered minor cuts and bruises, U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley said in a statement. Ramos has been moved to the special housing unit at the medium- and low-security federal prison in Yazoo...

CNSNews.com) - The suspected drug smuggler shot by two U.S. Border Patrol agents may sue the federal government for up to $5 million. Walter Boyaki, the El Paso, Texas-based attorney for Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, told Cybercast News Service Wednesday he was exploring a lawsuit for his client, but he added that no papers have been filed yet in federal court. He was reluctant to go into detail about the complaint other than to say it would accuse the government of negligence. The conviction and recent imprisonment of the agents has unleashed a storm of controversy, with a number of Republican lawmakers...

The federal prosecutor who helped convict two U.S. Border Patrol agents sentenced to more than a decade in jail for shooting a suspected drug smuggler who illegally crossed the border from Mexico understands why the case stirred public outrage. However, he attributes the anger to the portrayal of the case by the news media and said the media version "is unfortunately not the narrative the jury heard" before convicting the two...

- The Mexican suspected drug smuggler granted immunity in the controversial - and politically explosive - prosecution of two U.S. Border Patrol agents is not entirely off the hook. U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, the man at the center of the row over the prosecution and jailing of the two agents who shot the illegal immigrant, confirmed to Cybercast News Service Thursday that there is an ongoing investigation into Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila and others. Aldrete-Davila had been driving a van containing 743 pounds of marijuana on Feb. 17, 2005, the day border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean shot and wounded...

Imprisoned former Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos not only is being held in prison for trying to halt a fleeing drug smuggler, he's being held in solitary confinement treated as if he were Charles Manson, a relative told WND in an exclusive interview. Joe Loya, Ramos' father-in-law, told WND that Ramos is being held in conditions usually reserved for extraordinarily dangerous or trouble-making inmates. "They have Ignacio in a 6 foot by 12 foot cell," Loya told WND in a telephone interview from El Paso. "There are no bars, just a steel door, and no window. He has no television...

I had been grappling with the right and wrong of the situation concerning the two imprisoned border agents for some time until I viewed a segment on the O’Reilly Factor Thursday where he interviewed Johnny Sutton, the U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the case and put these men in jail for doing their job. He came across looking like a straight-shooter who was somewhat conflicted about a case he knew was weak, but was trying to put the best face on the prosecution that he could. His explanations convinced me that something was very wrong here, and to rethink this whole,...

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., introduced a bill Thursday calling for a congressional pardon of the agents. Congress has never issued pardons to anyone convicted of a crime, said Joe Kasper, Hunter's spokesman. But Kasper said Hunter believes there's enough ambiguity in the law on pardons to give it a try.

The head of a union representing most Border Patrol agents is calling on President Bush and Congress to appoint a special counsel to investigate the case of agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, who began prison sentences yesterday for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler. TJ Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents 60 percent of the nation's agents, called the convictions an outrage. "This case involves two innocent men doing their job, trying to secure our borders," he told WND. "They were defending themselves against an armed drug smuggler, and yet they end up in prison....

Two Texas Border Patrol agents who shot a Mexican drug runner in the backside on the U.S. side of the border are hoping a last-ditch pardon from President Bush will save them from serving more than a decade in prison. Click here for the rest of the story.

Angry Republican congressman calls President Bush 'disgrace' Amid protests and a flurry of last-minute efforts by congressmen, two border patrol agents are scheduled today to begin long prison sentences for shooting and wounding a Mexican drug smuggler who was given immunity to testify against them. In an interview with WND, an angry Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., called President Bush a "disgrace" for refusing to pardon Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos, who were sentenced to 12 years and 11 years, respectively, in October. With hopes for a presidential pardon dwindling, the lawmakers had requested that Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez assist...

They are just days from having to turn themselves in to federal authorities. Two border patrol agents have been convicted of shooting a drug smuggler in Texas, so why are the agents going to jail? Former El Paso border patrol agent Ignacio Ramos is just days away from having to turn himself in to federal authorities to begin serving an 11-year prison sentence.

Question: Thousands of illegal aliens -- many of whom are drug smugglers, gangsters and other criminals -- cross our borders every single day. But what happens to our brave border patrol agents who aggressively pursue and try to capture these criminals? Answer: 11-12 years in prison! You read that right. Two brave U.S. Border Patrol agents -- Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean -- are headed to prison for a combined 23 YEARS! Their sentences begin on January 17 -- less than two weeks from today! Their crime? Defending our nation's southern border against illegal alien drug smugglers.

President Bush pardoned 16 criminals including five drug dealers at Christmastime, but so far has refused to pardon the two U.S. Border Patrol agents who were trying to defend Americans against drug smugglers. It makes us wonder which side the self-proclaimed "compassionate" president is on. Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were guarding the Mexican border near El Paso, Texas, on Feb. 17, 2005, when they intercepted a van carrying 743 pounds of marijuana. For what happened next, they were convicted and sentenced under a statute that was designed to impose heavy punishment on criminal drug smugglers caught...

While the Bush administration seeks amnesty for illegal aliens and grants immunity to a Mexican drug smuggler, it has thrown the book at two courageous Border Patrol agents. Fabens, Texas — The chase was on. The suspected smuggler van turned back toward the Rio Grande and headed for Mexico. Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos was on his tail. Other agents were also converging on the scene. The suspect realized he wasn't going to outrun agent Ramos' vehicle, and so he abandoned his van on a levee and took off on foot. As the suspect headed into the canal, Ramos yelled...