Free Republic

Justice: Another border patrol agent faces prison after arresting an illegal alien smuggling drugs. When not being killed by guns funneled into Mexico by their own government, they are prosecuted for doing their job. In a case reminiscent of an earlier injustice against those protecting our borders, Border Patrol Agent Jesus E. "Chito" Diaz Jr. has been sentenced to two years in prison by U.S. District Judge Alia Moses Ludlum in San Antonio. The illegal alien he arrested for drug smuggling goes free. In November 2009, Diaz was named in a federal grand jury indictment after an October 2008 arrest...

Friday Night Dinner Meeting October 2, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. Featuring: Former Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos with his father-in-law Joe Loya & San Diego Radio Talk Show Host Rick Amato (KCBQ 1170 AM) Location: Temeku Hills Clubhouse (www.temekuhills.com) 41687 Temeku Drive, Temecula, CA 92591 RSVP at the link provided.

Former U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton has been hired to work in a consulting and law firm formed by former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. Sutton, who resigned Sunday as chief of the San Antonio-based Western District of Texas, is one of four outgoing U.S. attorneys hired by Ashcroft. All served under the administration of former President George W. Bush. “Johnny is joining the Ashcroft law firm, as is John Ratcliffe, former U.S. attorney from Dallas,” said Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Ashcroft’s company. “They will be operating in Texas as Ashcroft Sutton Ratcliffe LLC.” Corallo said Sutton will remain in...

Outgoing U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton said Monday he still believes he made the right call in prosecuting two then-Border Patrol agents convicted of covering up their shooting of an unarmed drug smuggler in the back. In a wide-ranging interview since announcing last week that he is resigning April 19, Sutton also said he was voluntarily leaving the job he’s had for more than seven years — the top federal prosecutor of the San Antonio-based Western District of Texas. Sutton, who was nominated to the post by President George W. Bush, said he is leaving for a legal job in the...

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of Austin, who is the top federal prosecutor for a 68-county swath of central, south and west Texas, told his staff today that he is resigning the post effective April 19. Spokeswoman Shana Jones said Sutton e-mailed a letter of resignation this morning to President Barack Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Jones said Sutton would not speak to the media until next week and currently does not want to disclose his future plans. Sutton, 48, was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001. Obama has not named a potential successor. Among the names...

(CNSNews.com) – A federal judge left unchanged the decade-plus prison sentences for two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a Mexican drug smuggler in early 2005. The ruling could be the final chapter of a controversial legal case that began along the Texas-Mexican border and erupted into a political and media firestorm. The prosecutor in the case, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of the Western District of Texas, was satisfied with the outcome. “It was a very righteous prosecution,” Sutton told CNSNews.com on Thursday. “The court of appeals and anyone who has looked at the facts has agreed with that. The...

What many people may not realize is that all too often, leaders of agencies are actually non-elected politicians. Someone once said that if you put more than two people together, you wind up with a political system. In order to ascend the chain of command in any organization, often the person who winds up at the top of the pyramid is the person who has demonstrated the willingness to "go along to get along." Apparently the chief of the Border Patrol is such an individual. Virtually from his very first day in office, President George W. Bush made it clear...

Roger Hedgecock to Interview Agent Ignacio Ramos today at 520pm Pacific/820pm Eastern Border Patrol Agent Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos will be making his first visit to our show since his release from Federal Prison on charges of involvement in the shooting of a Mexican Drug Trafficker. Agent Ramos will appear TODAY at 520pm Pacific/820pmEastern time tonight on the Roger Hedgecock Show, which is carried on almost 100 stations nationally, including radio stations: KOGO (San Diego), KXL(Portland) , KNEW(San Francisco) and KKOH (Reno) KDOX (Las Vegas) and KTSM (El Paso). The Show is also carried on XM 158 live from 6-9pm Eastern...

The US Supreme Court will not hear the appeals of US Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. The refusal lets stand the opinion of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirming the convictions and the sentences of the agents. Although this effectively ends the agents’ hopes to have their felony convictions overturned, they are now free men thanks to a last minute commutation of their 10-year sentences by President Bush. Had it not been for Bush’s action, the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case would likely have meant the agents would have served their full sentences. Nonetheless,...

Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos were scheduled for Beck's show today. I missed it at 5 p.m. EST but it is now repeating at 2 a.m. EST. Which means it should be on any minute.

For nearly two and a half years they've been in solitary confinement for their own safety. They will soon be released thanks to outgoing President George W. Bush's rare commutation of their 10-year mandatory sentences. Mr. Bush should have gone one step further and granted former U.S. Border Patrol Agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos complete presidential pardons. They were convicted of a 2005 assault after they confronted a drug smuggler at the U.S.-Mexico border who was trying to sneak a van full of his poison into our country. There was a pursuit and as the drug dealer ran, he...

Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were released last month from federal prison after serving more than two years in solitary confinement for the non-fatal shooting of a Mexican drug smuggler. President Bush commuted the sentences of the two border guards Jan. 19 and his order went into effect yesterday. They had spent the last month in home confinement and are now finally free. Glenn Beck has covered this story for years and was at the forefront of the movement to get President Bush to commute their sentences. These two men are truly American heroes. Welcome back!

Former U.S. Border Patrol agent Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos wakes up in the middle of the night expecting a guard to shine a flashlight in his face. Jose Alonso Compean, his colleague, still has nightmares that he's not really home. It has not been easy readjusting to life outside their one-man prison cells where they spent the last two years of their lives in segregation. Since the commutation of their sentences by President Bush on his last day in office, the former agents, who were charged with the non-fatal shooting of a Mexican national after he abandoned a load of marijuana...

Listening to Ignacio Ramos A free man!

Former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were given long jail terms for shooting at a fleeing drug smuggler, today told Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck that they were sustained by prayers of the American people and their spirits were lifted by their letters. The two were interviewed on Beck's program in their first television interview allowed under the terms of their probation after President Bush commuted their sentences on his last day in office. They just were released from ankle bracelet restrictions and still face limits on with whom they can talk. One of...

Just heard that Ramos has been released from prison. There will be no media access until March 20, 2009.

– WASHINGTON (AP) — In his final acts of clemency, President George W. Bush on Monday commuted the prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer ignited fierce debate about illegal immigration. Bush's decision to commute the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who tried to cover up the shooting, was welcomed by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress. They had long argued that the agents were merely doing their jobs, defending the American border against criminals. They also maintained that the more than 10-year prison sentences the pair...

Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos could be eligible to leave federal prison within days – though their official release date is still set for March 20, a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons has confirmed. BOP spokeswoman Traci Billingsley told WND that inmates may serve their sentences in arranged living facilities or home confinement before they are given their full freedom. "On their release date, all Bureau of Prisons inmates are generally released from one of three places," she said. "They're either released from an institution, a residential reentry center (halfway house) or they're released from...

Ruben Navarrette Jr.: Border agents' release will not wipe away their crime By Ruben Navarrette Jr. Posted: 01/25/2009 12:00:00 AM PST I was glad to see that George W. Bush commuted the prison sentences of former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean. And frankly, I was a bit surprised I was glad. I never had much sympathy for Ramos or Compean, disgraced law enforcement officers who were convicted of shooting a Mexican drug smuggler and then lying about it. From studying the facts, hearing the arguments of the agents' supporters, and interviewing U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, whose...

On his last full day as president, George W. Bush commuted the prison sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, two former Border Patrol agents who were sent to prison for crimes they committed related to the shooting of a Mexican drug smuggler. Upon being charged, these agents became convenient symbols, and far too many good people tried to justify their behavior through the prism of their own beliefs. Border Patrol officers saw them as fellow officers unfairly accused of tryin But Compean and Ramos are anything but heroes. They are not good cops unfairly accused...