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GOP-ers attend hearing on border shooting |
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By Jackie Kucinich
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Posted: 07/18/07 07:37 PM [ET] |
Three House Republican lawmakers attended a Senate hearing yesterday in support of two Border Patrol agents serving lengthy prison sentences for failing to follow proper procedure after an incident on the Mexican border.
Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) testified to a Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee on behalf of the agents, arguing that the two men were gravely misjudged and excessively punished for carrying out their duties as law enforcement officials.
On Oct. 19, 2006, Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos were sentenced to 12 years and 11 years and one day, respectively, for failing to properly report the non-fatal shooting of an illegal immigrant. The injured man tried to escape across the border after being caught with 793 pounds of marijuana, but was later brought back to the United States to testify against the agents.
The GOP lawmakers argued for a pardon and urged Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who chairs the panel’s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, to launch an investigation into the sentencing and try to help the two men.
Hunter acknowledged that the agents failed to follow procedure, but he harshly criticized the sentence.
“I strongly believe pardoning agents Compean and Ramos is the only option available to correct this terrible injustice and, just as importantly, [restore] the confidence of the Border Patrol and the American people that their nation is serious about enforcing its immigration and smuggling laws,” Hunter said in his statement.
Rohrabacher echoed those remarks and also criticized the Bush administration for pardoning Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
He said when he asked President Bush to consider pardoning the two agents, he was turned down “abruptly and arrogantly.”
Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) also attended the hearing but did not testify. He said that he sent a letter to Feinstein underscoring his support for the two men, and that he was so impressed by Feinstein’s hearing that he asked House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) to considering holding one as well.
“I think by what Senator Feinstein is doing we are finally going to find out what really happened,” Jones said.
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