Free Republic

BISBEE — Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Corbett can be tried in Cochise County Superior Court on a charge of second-degree murder, a justice of the peace ruled Monday. However, after listening to testimony at a preliminary hearing, Justice of the Peace David Morales decided that the evidence did not support a more serious charge of first-degree murder, which supposes premeditation. On April 23, Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer charged Corbett with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, negligent homicide and manslaughter in connection with the Jan. 12 shooting death of Francisco Javier Dominguez-Rivera, a 22-year-old Mexican national who had crossed the border...

Reinstated 6 years after felony conviction similar to Ramos, Compean Six years after his felony conviction for striking an illegal alien who resisted arrest, Border Patrol Agent David Sipe has been vindicated by an administrative law ruling, reports WND columnist Jerome Corsi, who notes similarities to the current cases of the "Texas 3." Sipe was convicted in 2001 of criminal felony charges for striking illegal alien coyote Jose Guevara on the back of his head. Anna Love, an administrative judge with the Dallas Region of the Merit Systems Protection Board, ordered Sipe reinstated June 13 to his former Border Patrol...

ATLANTA - A globe-trotting Atlanta lawyer with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis was allowed back into the U.S. by a border inspector who disregarded a computer warning to stop him and don protective gear, officials said Thursday. The inspector has been removed from border duty. The unidentified inspector explained that he was no doctor but that the infected man seemed perfectly healthy and that he thought the warning was merely "discretionary," officials briefed on the case told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is still under investigation. The patient was identified as Andrew Speaker,...

SAN DIEGO – A former border inspector who accepted more than $70,000 in bribes for allowing illegal immigrants into the country was sentenced to 57 months in prison Monday on bribery and smuggling charges. Richard Elizalda, 56, of Chula Vista, pleaded guilty to bribery and smuggling charges in September 2006. He admitted accepting between $70,000 to $120,000 in cash and automobiles and said he allowed hundreds of illegal immigrants into the country between 2004 and June 2006, when he was arrested. Before pronouncing the sentence, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns told Elizalda, “You're one of the gatekeepers for the security...

A former border inspector was sentenced Thursday to five years in federal prison for guiding hundreds of illegal immigrants through his checkpoint booth in exchange for taking at least $70,000 from a smuggling ring. Michael Anthony Gilliland, a 44-year-old former Marine and 16-year border agent, pleaded guilty in September to letting illegal immigrants through San Diego's Otay Mesa port of entry in exchange for bribes. Gilliland and five others coordinated smuggling operations and deliberately failed to record vehicles that ferried immigrants through border lanes under his supervision, according to court documents. He was arrested in June. Four other co-conspirators have...

New evidence suggests prosecuting U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of El Paso lied about how the government found the fleeing illegal alien Mexican drug smuggler, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, according to a Border Patrol advocate closely following the case of former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. Contrary to claims, no Mexican attorney was involved as an intermediary offering to reveal the identity of the drug smuggler and bring him back to the U.S. in exchange for given immunity to testify against Border Patrol, contended Andy Ramirez, chairman of Friends of the Border Patrol.

EL PASO, Texas -- Virginia Orwig stood in the kitchen, preparing homemade apple and cherry pies. With each turn of the crust, tears fell from her eyes. Cooking is her therapy. She was baking for her son, Border Patrol Agent Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos, and his family. It might be more than 10 years, even as many as 20, before she bakes for him again, and before the family reunites. Ramos and his co-worker, Jose Alonso Compean, are to be sentenced Thursday for the nonfatal shooting of a Mexican national, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, who allegedly was trying to smuggle nearly $1 million...

At least one border agent hasn't quite fulfilled his job description. An illegal alien who was a US border agent is charged with smuggling illegal aliens across the US border, reports KFI News in Los Angeles. 28-year-old Oscar Antonio Ortiz submitted a false birth certificate when he applied to become a border agent. The certificate said he was born in Chicago. Ortiz was hired in 2001. Now the federal government says Ortiz was born in Tijuana and that he smuggled illegal aliens across the border while on duty as a US border agent. Ortiz was arrested in California on Thursday...