Lawsuit Focuses on Whether Mexico Influenced Arrest of Border Agents

Lawsuit Focuses on Whether Mexico Influenced Arrest of Border Agents
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Category: Life

Lawsuit Focuses on Whether Mexico Influenced Arrest of Border Agents
By Fred Lucas
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
March 22, 2007

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200703/NAT20070322a.html

(CNSNews.com) - A government watchdog group wants to know whether the Mexican government influenced the decision by federal prosecutors to go after two ex-border agents who shot a Mexican suspected of smuggling drugs into the country.

Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit on March 16 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., asking the court to force the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and the State Department to release information related to the case of former U.S. Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, now serving prison sentences of 11 and 12 years respectively for the shooting incident.

"We are interested in learning about any deals brokered between the U.S. and Mexico following the shooting in 2005," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. "Given the public and congressional controversy surrounding the case, the more the American people know about what happened, the better."

The group brought the suit because the federal agencies did not yet respond to a Freedom of Information Act request filed on Jan. 24.

The case of Ramos and Compean began in Texas but sparked national outrage that stretched to Capitol Hill. Already a Senate Judiciary subcommittee and a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee are investigating the case and plan to hold hearings.

Ramos and Compean were convicted by a jury on 11 of 12 counts, including assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with serious bodily injury resulting, discharge of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence, willfully violating the illegal immigrant's constitutional rights, lying about the incident and failing to report the truth.

The agents were charged after the U.S. attorney's office sought out Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, the alleged smuggler who fled back to Mexico after he was shot and offered him full immunity to testify against the two agents.

Specifically, Judicial Watch is seeking records regarding the immunity deal, the medical treatment Aldrete-Davila received at a military hospital, communications between the three federal agencies named in the suit with the government of Mexico, and all records pertaining to the participation of U.S. government personnel in coordinating the return of Aldrete-Davila to the United States.

Republican members of Congress cite the irony in the case - an alleged drug dealer was found to have nearly 750 pounds of marijuana in his van and managed to gain legal immunity while two border agents are in prison.

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton from the Western District of Texas, who oversaw the case, has responded to critics by emphasizing that the two agents shot an unarmed man and tried to hide evidence after the incident.