Despite pleas for new trial, calls for investigation, Border Patrol agents receive lengthy sentences

October 20, 2006

Despite a plea from their attorney for a new trial after three jurors said they were coerced into voting guilty in the case, and despite calls in Congress for investigation, two U.S. Border Patrol agents have received lengthy prison terms. The two had shot a drug smuggling suspect in the buttocks as he fled across the U.S.-Mexico border in 2005. The suspect had been driving a van loaded with 743 pounds of marijuana across the border.

The U.S. District Court Judge in El Paso, Texas, Kathleen Cardone, sentenced Jose Alonso Compean to 12 years in prison and Ignacio Ramos to 11 years and one day in prison. They had been convicted in March on charges of causing serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and a civil rights violation.

Much of the evidence against them came from the drug runner, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, who reported the shooting to a friend at the Border Patrol in Arizona. Aldrete-Davila was given immunity by the U.S. attorney's office. A federal jury convicted them after a two-week trial. The Border Patrol fired both men after their convictions. The judge ordered them to report to prison Jan. 17.

Outraged supporters and anguished family members packed the courtroom, and many wept as the sentences were announced. Outside the courthouse, members of the Minuteman Project, which opposes illegal immigration, carried "Free Nacho" placards.

Anti-immigration activists and advocates of stronger border security argue that the case epitomizes the misplaced priorities of federal prosecutors as well as the absurd predicament of Border Patrol agents, who must fight heavily armed criminals while using little or no force. Among the rules broken by the agents, supporters note, was a policy forbidding agents from giving chase.

Aldrete-Davila was shot after he illegally entered the United States near Fabens, Texas, and refused efforts by the agents to stop his vehicle. Court records show he jumped from his van and ran south to Rio Grande, where he was confronted by Compean, who was knocked to the ground. Aldrete-Davila managed to cross the border and escape in an awaiting van.

Aldrete-Davila has filed a claim with the Border Patrol, saying the agency was negligent and asking for $5 million in damages.