House Border Agents Bill Lacks Support in Senate
By: Administrative Account | Source: CNSNews.com
October 16, 2007 8:41AM EST

By Fred Lucas
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
October 16, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - The incarceration to two ex-Border Patrol agents for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler in the rear sparked bipartisan outrage, but a congressional initiative to free the two men may not achieve bicameral results.

The House approved last week a Justice Department appropriations bill with a provision to prohibit the use of federal funds to enforce the prison sentences imposed on Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.

The two were sentenced to 11 and 12 years respectively for shooting smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila in the buttocks and then covering up the February 2005 incident. Aldrete-Davila was given immunity to testify against the agents.

The Senate version of the Justice Department funding bill doesn't have the de-funding measure for the Bureau of Prisons relating to Ramos and Compean. Even the Senate's two leading advocates for the jailed ex-border agents are opposed to adding such a provision.

"I do have a problem with de-funding incarceration for these two agents," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters and bloggers in a teleconference Monday. "I just think that's not an appropriate thing for Congress to do, and I worry that it could be a precedent for future instances that may tend to undermine the criminal justice process."

In July, Cornyn and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) sent a letter to President George W. Bush asking that he commute the sentences of the two border agents.

"We need to let the courts work through their appeal," Cornyn said. "I hope and urge the executive branch will commute the sentence. I am doubtful whether the de-funding of their incarceration would be effective."

Feinstein's office deferred to a statement she made at a July Senate Judiciary Committee hearing investigating the case.

"I take a dim view of canceling money as a way of handling this situation," Feinstein said at the hearing, which she chaired.

"I think it creates an unseemly and difficult scenario whereby you set a precedent anytime you don't like a sentence you're going to cancel the funds for the individual. ... I think the way to do it is to make the case to the president for commutation," she added.

Bush has shown reluctance to pardon or commute their sentence.

The lack of support from these two key senators could indicate the de-funding provision doesn't have adequate support in the Senate.

The de-funding provision was first considered by Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) as the most effective measure Congress could take with the fewest constitutional questions. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) sponsored a congressional pardon - an idea that hasn't been tested by the courts as pardoning and commutation is usually left up to the president.

Poe is joining other members of the House in sending a letter to Bush's nominee for Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking for a thorough investigation into the conduct of U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of the Western District of Texas, who brought the case against the border agents.

Republican Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Poe, Hunter, John Culberson (R-Texas), and Walter Jones (R-N.C.) are holding a press conference Tuesday to announce the letter.

Feinstein called Sutton's case "prosecutorial overreaction."

The often maligned Sutton has consistently defended his prosecution of Ramos and Compean, saying they tried to cover up the shooting and did not know he was a drug dealer at the time of the shooting.

Cornyn was careful to stress that he was upset about the case, specifically that the charges against the agents included the crime of discharging a firearm while committing a crime, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years.

He said the weapons charge in particular was "disproportionate and inappropriate" in applying to law enforcement doing their jobs.

"This is a case that cries out for justice. It seemed like the drug dealer got every break and these two law enforcement officers, notwithstanding their mistakes, didn't get any breaks," Cornyn said.

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