"Legal defense fund started for convicted Border Patrol agents"

Posted Tue, Aug 22, 2006 at 12:01 am
From this:
The union representing U.S. Border Patrol agents has set up a legal defense fund for two agents convicted earlier this year of wounding a suspected drug smuggler and then trying to cover up the shooting.

The National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents nearly all Border Patrol agents, launched the fund this week to help former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean pay for an appeal and provide some money for their families. The men were suspended without pay after their 2005 arrests and fired after a federal jury convicted them in March.

Union chief T.J. Bonner, a Border Patrol agent, said the fund is a way for fellow agents and other friends of the Border Patrol to show their support for the agents who Bonner believes were wrongly prosecuted. The union contributed $10,000 in "seed money."

...U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a former Border Patrol sector chief from El Paso, said he Tuesday has not been contacted and will not take up the case.

"A jury found them guilty," Reyes said. "I will refer to (U.S. Attorney) Johnny Sutton."
The last bit contradicts the article here, which said:
Several other House members, including Democrat Silvestre Reyes, who led the El Paso Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol before being elected to Congress, also agreed to support a probe...
In more favorable news, Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) has sent a letter to George Bush about the case.

Tags: 
ramos and compean

Comments

Smitty (not verified)

Wed, 08/23/2006 - 10:30

I believe Democrat Silvestre Reyes steered lucrative border cam contracts to his own daughter's firm who took the money & then installed non-working dysfunctional border cameras which never worked, still don't work and the work was never competed, her firm was paid millions of dollars for the crappy work though.

I wouldn't expect anything other than ongoing & continuous Mexican invasion from Mr Reyes, he is a Mexican agent (in practice) after all.

Captain A (not verified)

Tue, 08/22/2006 - 06:11

The assistant DA for Western Texas had the options of going after a wholesale drug dealer or prosecuting law enforcement people whose intent was to protect the American people. Rather than prosecute those who would do us harm, the DA chose to intimidate law enforcement personnel as a whole. We should wonder whose interests he has at heart. The DA is a political appointee, so one has to suspect that the President has a hand in this fiasco, if not directly, by proxy. It is also very interesting that the federal probation office, not satisfied with destroying the reputation or future employment opportunity of the two agents, recommended that the judge impose a 20 year sentence.

Democrat Silvestre Reyes sudden change of heart makes one wonder whether he has been influenced by illegal immigration advocacy groups. Advocacy groups would love to see the border patrol's morale to take a dive, along with a commensurate reduction in their efficacy.