Posted on 01/24/2007 5:51:23 AM PST by NapkinUser
Calls State of the Union speech 'total sellout of the United States of America to Mexico'
Monica Ramos, the wife of one of two U.S. Border Patrol agents imprisoned last week for wounding an escaping drug smuggler, attended the State of the Union speech in person last night – and was sharply critical of President Bush, calling him a hypocrite and worse.
Ramos, wife of Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos, attended the event as a guest of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif.
Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean began prison sentences last week, of 11 and 12 years respectively, for their actions in the shooting and wounding of a Mexican drug smuggler who was granted full immunity to testify against them.
At the conclusion of the speech, Ramos, emotional and in tears, told WND in an exclusive interview, that she considered President Bush's speech compete hypocrisy.
"How could President Bush say that he wanted to secure our borders and that he would double the size of the Border Patrol when my husband is in prison," she asked WND. "Ignacio was trying to secure our border from drug smugglers. And what do we get? I have to show my children their father in prison in chains and I have to explain to them that the president of the United States is a liar."
WND waited nearly an hour after the speech was concluded to be able to speak with a clearly emotionally upset Monica Ramos.
"President Bush can say all he wants that the solution to border security is new infrastructure and technology," Ramos told WND, "but as long as my husband is in jail the American people should know that President Bush doesn't mean a word he says."
"What I sat in the gallery and heard tonight," she said, "was a total sell-out of the United States of America to Mexico. I heard President Bush's message loud and clear. All the president has to offer is electronic gadgets. Meanwhile, our borders are wide open to illegal immigrants, criminals and drug smugglers. God help the honest men and women of the Border Patrol who want to do their duty. It's a losing battle – just ask my husband, he'll tell you the truth."
"The American people only need to ask me," Ramos pleaded to WND. "Tell America that President Bush doesn't mean a word of what he says about border security. My husband is in jail for trying to capture a drug smuggler and President Bush wants electronics? My husband is a hero and President Bush is a traitor as far as I'm concerned. Let him tell my children that he wants new 'infrastructure' or 'comprehensive immigration reform' when their dad who wore the Border Patrol badge for years is shackled and in chains for doing his job."
Rohrabacher agreed with Ramos, emphasizing to WND that "the Bush administration has a hidden agenda with Mexico and that agenda is to keep our border with Mexico wide open, even to drug smugglers."
Asked what message he wanted to send by inviting Ramos' wife to attend the speech in person, Rohrabacher explained: "I wanted to give Mrs. Ramos the opportunity to be in the room and look President Bush right in the face, knowing that this was the man who was destroying her life by his decision to prosecute her husband to the hilt."
Rohrabacher described the injustice he perceived in emotional terms: "By prosecuting these two Border Patrol agents while the drug smuggler is given immunity, President Bush has brutalized the lives of agents Ramos and Compean with a decision that threatens to destroy their families. The wives and the young children of these two Border Patrol agents are now being driven into poverty. The families have no health insurance, they are now losing their homes, and they face a mountain of debt to lawyers. This is a travesty of justice and a personal tragedy that should make President Bush ashamed.
Asked if he had achieved his purpose in inviting Monica Ramos to attend the speech, Rohrabacher told WND:
My purpose after hearing the State of the Union tonight is doubly resolved. President Bush needs to know that we will not rest until Border Patrol [officers] Ramos and Compean are set free.
In history there are cases where heroic people were brutalized and sacrificed by political powers in order to achieve a certain agenda. In this case, I think that's what's happening.
We have an administration that has a hidden agenda with Mexico such that George Bush wants an open border, even though an open border is not in the interests of the American people.
These Border Patrol agents are caught in the middle. They're Americans and they know what their job is supposed to be. They are being persecuted and prosecuted for our sake because they are getting in the way of a power play that has yet been disclosed to the public.
It brutalizes the lives and destroys the families of men who have been willing to sacrifice their lives for us for the last five and 10 years. This is both a tragedy and a travesty.
The continued insistence of the administration to prosecute these Border Patrol agents and to put them in jail and to shackle them and see the families of these men being driven into destitution – this indicates that there has been a decision right at the top that's based on arrogance and cruelty that I think unfortunately reflects our president. It's a side of the president that is now coming out.
We get calls back from the underlings, the assistant congressional liaison officers. This president doesn't return phone calls and he is arrogant and nasty and doesn't treat people very well, not even members of Congress.
The statement we're trying to make is that the president's policy along the border is responsible for murders, drug dealers and terrorists entering the country, millions of illegals. His policy has resulted in the undermining of those law enforcement officers guarding the border, he has totally demoralized the Border Patrol, and in the process of him trying to send a message to the Border Patrol he's destroying the lives of two families. … This person looking right into the face of the president in the same room, this mother of three, her life is being destroyed by President Bush's decision to fully prosecute to the hilt her husband.
American citizens need to rally around these two Border Patrol agents and should call the White House directly to register their protest to this travesty of justice.
President Bush made no reference to the Border Patrol case in a 50-minute speech that focused on domestic issues in the first half and international issues in the second half.
Monica Ramos told WND she was in Washington, D.C., to attend a meeting yesterday afternoon with concerned congressmen.
At least 70 members of the House have signed on to a resolution ordering a congressional pardon that would toss out the convictions and immediately free the former agents.
Monica Ramos described her first meeting with her husband in prison as "heart breaking."
Ramos confirmed the account provided WND by her father, Joe Loya. She acknowledged her husband is being held in solitary confinement in a 6-by-12 foot cell, without windows. Ignacio Ramos is not being allowed any exercise time, and he is shackled every time he leaves his cell.
"This may be for his protection from other inmates," Monica Ramos acknowledged to WND, "but this is abusive. They are treating my husband like the worst hardened criminal imaginable."
She said one of her three young children is so disturbed by the imprisonment that the family has decided to seek counseling for the child.
"My children are planning to visit their father for the first time this Friday," she said, expressing concern. "This will be the first time they see their dad shackled in chains, when they are used to seeing me send him off in his badge and uniform."
The couple's youngest child is 7 years old, the others are aged 9 and 13.
"My youngest child wanted to know if we could order pizza for dad in prison," Monic Ramos said. "No, I told him. Let's wait and have pizza night when daddy gets home."
So the death penalty includes failure to stop.... like Cuba, or Nazi Germany.
I'm sad that these guys are in prison, and think their sentences are too harsh. But...not only did they shoot a fleeing suspect in the back, didn't they pick up all the shell casings at the shooting site, and basically try to cover up the incident and pretend it never happened? Why sweep it under the rug if they thought it was justified?
I don't think they should be doing 12 years hard time, but neither do I think they should be in the Border Patrol any more.
}:-)4
Exactly. If it were legal to shoot fleeing suspects (now WHAT reason would a suspect have for fleeing, other than some sort of guilt??) that would make the jobs of law enforcement much easier. Armed or not. I am not saying shoot to kill, but at least shoot with the intent to capacitate after a verbal warning, like multiple rounds in the legs.
Because, Mrs Ramos, the two have nothing to do with each other. I know you're upset that your husband is in prison, but get a clue. You only come off sounding looney with these kinds of comments.
Well I'm a die hard conservative and when the Pres started talking about our borders all I could think about was this guy's wife in the galley - and think yeah, he's a hyprocrite if he doesn't pardon them. This case is just too hard to take - Pres. pardon those agents!! Time is of the essence. Go read that post 250 somewhere here - the prosecution refuses to substantiate the claims to congressmen making an inquiry - that's really in your face!!
I know if I need someone's help then I'm not going to spit in their face while I'm seeking it. Corsi and the congresscritter did this family no favors, imo.
It must be 'trendy' for politicians to appear in the pocket of drug dealers / drug cartels. clinton / gore did such, now george has done such.
Hey, don't let the "ALLEGED" fact that he was shot in the back while fleeing (posing no imminent threat to the border agents) spoil a good immigration-bashing thread.
Heh heh. Any excuse will do.
However, you DID leave out what I thought was the most important issue re: their conviction, which NONE of the hard core haters will address: These guys TRIED TO COVER UP THEIR COMPLICITY. The not only did not report it, but tried to conceal evidence, and initially lied about it.
Someone who would turn this into a soap opera about our "brave heroic defenders of the border against the murdering criminal hordes seeking to invade" is just an agenda waiting for an excuse.
Political correctness will be the downfall of this country.
Uhmmm its not an alleged shot in the back when you have the wounds to prove it.
Deadeye Dick might be able to manage it, but you're going to have a tough time finding a regular cop who can aim for the legs and actually hit them (repeatedly!) without jacking a bullet somewhere else. Anytime you fire a shot at somebody their life is in extreme danger.
"Use a gun, go to prison."
My thoughts exactly.
Thanks for mentioning that. The fact that these border agents tried to cover up what they had done should negate any chance of a pardon.
And of course no message is being sent by the outcome to those wishing to invade America with drugs (drug runners, drug dealers, murderers, etc.) This outcome is NOT going to strike fear into those wishing to come to this country illegally knowing Border Patrol Agents can be sent to jail for defending themselves and the border. But I can hear the response now, from the drug runners, drug dealers, murderers, etc., 'get over it America, your president will protect us'. This outcome DOES NOT bode well for Law Enforcement. But, I know, why worry about Law Enforcement, for Law Enforcement is absolutely corrupt and wrong to attempt to arrest law breakers.
The drug smuggler was armed with pounds of an illegal substance to sell to our kids and put us in jeopardy at the hands of druggies and criminals. This scum should have been ignored, instead he was given immunity. I believe he was shot in the butt, not the back. The big issue was that they tried to cover it up. It has to be a difficult job to work for a government who doesn't really want you to do your job at enforcing our borders.
The Border agents were wrong to try to cover it up. This sentence is as much as people get for murder. Maybe a more equitable justice should be worked out. Instead the US is still pandering to Mexico.
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