Free Republic

Former U.S. Border Patrol Agent Jose Compean is serving 12 years in prison for his role in the shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila as he ran toward Mexico. Aldrete-Davila was wounded by Compean's partner as both agents fired shots at him after he allegedly ditched a vehicle containing more than 700 pounds of marijuana. Aldrete-Davila was granted immunity to testify against Compean and his partner, former Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos. The agents were convicted last year in the 2005 shooting incident near El Paso, Texas, and of trying to cover it up. CNN Anchor Lou Dobbs conducted with Compean. LOU...

Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos could hear his heart racing. He could feel the dry, hot dust burning against his skin as he chased a drug trafficker trying to flee back into Mexico. Ramos' fellow agent, Jose Alonso Compean, was lying on the ground behind him, banged up and bloody from a scuffle with the much-bigger smuggler moments earlier. Suddenly the smuggler turned toward the pursuing Ramos, gun in hand. Ramos, his own weapon already drawn, shot at him, though the man was able to flee into the brush and escape the agents. Now, nearly 18 months after that violent...

When Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos pulled the trigger last February, all he knew was that his partner was lying on the ground behind him – bloodied from a struggle with a fleeing suspect – shots had been fired and now, it appeared, the drug smuggler he was pursuing had turned toward him with what looked to be a gun in his hand. In the split-second he had to respond, Ramos determined the course of his and his partner's lives – federal prison for the next 20 years for assault with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharging...