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EL PASO - An admitted drug smuggler shot by a pair of U.S. Border Patrol agents must remain jailed until his trial on smuggling charges, a federal judge has ruled.Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, who was shot in the rear while fleeing from former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, was indicted this year on charges related to two smuggling attempts about six months after the shooting. Aldrete has pleaded not guilty. The agents were convicted last year of shooting him and trying to cover up the incident. Both men are serving more than a decade in federal prison. U.S. Magistrate...

Joe Loya reported the following from the 5th Circuit Courthouse, New Orleans, Ramos and Compean Hearing Before three federal judges: Ramos and Compean's attorney was allowed to speak for one half hour, no interruptions The prosecuting attorney was interrupted "every three minutes" by all three judges. "The attorney could barely complete sentences without the judges firing away at him." The judges were familiar, in depth, with the case They grilled the prosecuting attorney relentlessly on the following: Why did the government allow Davila to lie under oath Why did the government grant this special immunity Why did the government prosecute...

... & pardon these 2 Saturday, November 24, 2007 The degrading, draconian and disgraceful incarceration of former Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean indicates President George W. Bush, the self-anointed compassionate conservative, is capable of stone-cold stupidity. By doing their duty along the near-lawless border with Mexico, Messrs. Ramos and Compean have become tragic symbols of this nation's gross incompetence regarding enforcement of immigration law.

The allegasd Mexican drug smuggler shot by Border Patrol agents as he tried to dodge arrest in 2005 will appear in federal court in El Paso, Texas, on Friday afternoon. Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, 27, was arrested Thursday on a drug smuggling offense at a U.S. port of entry. A federal grand jury handed down a sealed indictment on Oct. 17. Aldrete was granted immunity in 2005 in exchange for testifying against ex-border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. The two Border Patrol agents were sentenced to 11 and 12 years, respectively, for shooting Aldrete as he tried to sneak about...

MESA, Ariz. (AP) — A woman who stabbed her tied-up lover so she could drink his blood has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. Tiffany Sutton told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge David Udall that she was sorry for the incident and said she never meant to hurt anyone, but received the stiff sentence anyway after he called the crime especially heinous. Sutton, 24, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in August. She was arrested by Tempe police in February after she repeatedly stabbed her lover during an alcohol-and drug-fueled sexual tryst. According to police reports, the victim, 46-year-old Robert...

It seems the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas, overseen by Johnny Sutton from his throne in San Antonio, has a PR problem when it comes to dealing with drug smugglers. In the high-profile case of the two Border Patrol agents in Texas who are now serving long prison terms for shooting a drug smuggler in the rear end, conservative media outlets are proclaiming that Sutton’s office showed special favor to the smuggler in order to ruin the lives of the agents. Likewise, in the House of Death mass murder case, an informant was shown special consideration...

Informer tells of corrupt Mexico October 25, 2007 By Jerry Seper - An informant who worked for U.S. authorities for more than four years says government, police and military authorities in Mexico have been corrupted by drug smugglers, often carrying out kidnappings and killings on the orders of drug cartel bosses. The accusations are outlined in sworn testimony before a U.S. immigration judge by Guillermo Eduardo Ramirez Peyro, a former Mexican police officer who was paid $224,000 for information U.S. anti-drug agents used to convict dozens of high-ranking Mexican drug traffickers. Ramirez told U.S. Immigration Judge Joseph R. Dierkes in...

Mexican soldiers and civilian smugglers had an armed standoff with nearly 30 U.S. law enforcement officials on the Rio Grande in Texas Monday afternoon, according to Texas police and the FBI. Mexican military Humvees were towing what appeared to be thousands of pounds of marijuana across the border into the United States, said Chief Deputy Mike Doyal, of the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department. Mexican Army troops had several mounted machine guns on the ground more than 200 yards inside the U.S. border -- near Neely's Crossing, about 50 miles east of El Paso -- when Border Patrol agents called for...

Inspector confronted on Capitol Hill, says promised 'proof' does not exist A Department of Homeland Security official admitted today the agency misled Congress when it contended it possessed investigative reports proving Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean confessed guilt and declared they "wanted to shoot some Mexicans" prior to the incident that led to their imprisonment. The admission came during the testimony of DHS Inspector General Richard L. Skinner before the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, according to Michael Green, press secretary for Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas. Culberson was questioning Skinner about a meeting DHS...

Mexico is demanding the United States conduct an investigation following the shooting death of a man who allegedly tried to cross the border into the U.S. illegally. U.S. authorities say a border patrol agent shot and killed a suspected smuggler of illegal immigrants on Wednesday at the fence that separates the southern U.S. city of El Paso, Texas, from Mexico. U.S. authorities say the man tried to hit the agent with a rock and was holding bolt cutters in his other hand. Mexico's Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that the Mexican government opposes the use of lethal weapons "in...

House Republicans and Democrats rebuked U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton today for not appearing at a House subcommittee hearing into his office's prosecution of former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. .. The absence of Sutton and Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner – and an overall lack of cooperation from the Justice Department – will trigger additional oversight hearings demanding answers in the controversial case, said Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., chairman of the subcommittee on Internal Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Delahunt pointed out the Justice Department decided Sutton...

The drug smuggler who was shot at by former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean and testified against them when they were convicted in the case was issued unconditional, unescorted access to the United States during a period that included his involvement in a second drug smuggling incident, according to U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R.-Calif. He has obtained – and provided WND with – copies of Department of Homeland Security border pass cards issued to Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, the smuggler in the case, covering that period of time. "It appears as though the U.S. Attorney's Office was so...

SAN DIEGO -- In the Old West, outlaw gangs would sometimes try to sidestep the criminal justice system by busting someone out of jail. Today, that role is being taken up by some members of Congress. Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing into the case of ex-Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean. The two men were convicted last year of shooting and wounding Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, an unarmed drug smuggler, along the U.S.-Mexican border and then covering it up by destroying evidence and falsifying reports. Ramos and Compean were sentenced to 11 and 12 years...

Questioned by an audience member at a forum, President Bush said he could not promise to pardon former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. "I'm not going to make that kind of promise in a forum like this," Bush said at the Nashville event yesterday, which focused on his budget. Bush referred to the U.S. attorney responsible for the case, Johnny Sutton, as "a dear friend of mine" and called him a "fair guy" and "even-handed," according to a White House transcript. The president elicited laughter when he told the questioner, "You've got a nice smile, but...

A hearing has been scheduled in federal court on a request by Judicial Watch for access to government documents about any deals it cut with Mexico in the prosecution of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. As WND has reported, government documents already have disclosed the fact that Mexican consular officials were the ones who demanded a prosecution of Texas Sheriff's Deputy Guillermo "Gilmer" Hernandez, who was brought to trial after two illegal immigrants were injured when he fired at a van that had tried to run him down.

Click here to listen to Laura's entire interview today with Johnny Sutton. Here are two earlier threads about the interview: Laura Ingraham is Hammering Johnny Sutton Johnny Sutton to be a Laura Ingraham show (07.20.07)

NASHVILLE, July 19 -- President Bush said Thursday that he had considered unilaterally sending U.S. troops to Darfur to stop the mass slaughter in that Sudanese region but decided against it in favor of a multinational response that he conceded has been "slow" and "tedious."(snip) The audience was friendly and gave Bush a standing ovation for his position on the Iraq war. But several questioners, unhappy that more has not been done to tighten the borders, pressed him on immigration. Bush defended his plan, which died in the Senate, to grant legal status to illegal immigrants already in the United...

In hearings held this week Sutton blamed the decision to prosecute the border agents and to pursue an excessive punishment on his superiors at the Justice Department. He also attempted to explain his use of the federal statute which normally applies to the use of a firearm in a violent crime by bringing up various other examples of law officers prosecuted under the statute, but all of the examples differed significantly from the case in question, because Osvaldo Aldrete Davila (the drug smuggler) was attempting to evade arrest. In the other cases where the statute has been used which Sutton...

"Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee criticized the heavy sentence two former Border Patrol agents received for non-fatally shooting an illegal alien who smuggled drugs across the border." read op-ed Johnny Sutton, Western District of Texas, U.S Attorney discusses the previous day's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on a U.S. Border Guard Case about the convictions of two border agents who are charged with excessive force on a fleeing suspect. Sutton, who prosecuted the case against the agents, testified at the hearing. 27 min. Watch C-SPAN's Washington Journal... rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/im/im_wj071807_sutton.rm

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Border Patrol agents should be allowed to shoot at fleeing drug traffickers, a Republican senator suggested Tuesday. The patrol's deadly force rules were questioned at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing concerning the conviction of two agents who shot a fleeing, unarmed drug trafficker and covered it up. "Why is it wrong to shoot the [trafficker] after he's been told to stop?" asked Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma. Johnny Sutton, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, said the Supreme Court has ruled that using deadly force in that way is illegal. Agents also may not know...