Ramos and Compean

There is no way in hell I could be a Border Patrol agent here. None! They are understaffed so they can't do their work. They are outgunned so if they try to stop anyone there's a good chance that they aren't going home that night. And now, if you stop the wrong drug smuggler, you may be going to prison and watching your family get torn apart. Now, I have no sympathy for the Border Patrol agents who are out there taking bribes to let loads of illegal aliens or drugs through the border, but when Ramos and Compean left for work that night, I'm sure they had no idea that they'd be facing the full power of the American legal system for doing their jobs too well.

Picture this: You're a border patrol agent. It's nighttime. You see a suspicious van leaving Mexico so you follow it. Soon the guy in the van panics and he pulls over. You partner gets out faster than you and you think you hear gunfire. You catch up to your partner and see he's on the ground. You don't know if the guy ahead of you has a gun or not so you draw your weapon and shoot at the shadowy figure. He gets away back into Mexico and on inspection of the vehicle he left, you discover over 700 lb. of Marijuana. You come to find out months later that the guy you were pursuing has been given immunity to testify against you.

Fast forward to the courthouse: You've turned down the plea deals because you've done nothing wrong, so you go to trial. The guy you shot comes in with a story about "Oh I was just trying to go back home and this mean agent threatened me with his shotgun and the other agent shot me in the butt and I've been traumatized by this..." Then imagine your horror as multiple people you worked with perjure themselves on the stand to convict you. Your family is in debt to its eyeballs. You and your partner will leave six kids without a dad when you are to report to Prison in January. You come to find out that it's the President that has greased the wheels so that you go away for 11 years and a day in federal prison. Your partner gets 12 years. Does this seem jacked up to anyone else here, or is it just me?

This is an open letter sent to the White House this morning.

Dear sirs,

I mean this with all due respect to your office but right now your actions in this case truly disgust me. I can't believe that you have turned your back on Ramos and Compean, two men who have served this country with distinction in what has got to be the most difficult positions in federal service, the Border Patrol. It is truly mindboggling how you have decided to ignore the populous, who have been screaming for border security for years and in this instance, thumb your nose at us by putting two men in prison for doing their sworn job. By contrast, Reagan would have had these men at the White House as visiting heroes. Bush 1 or Clinton would have held these men up as examples of what is going right in the drug war. Only you would take great glee at making these men pariahs and stripping them of everything they have.

How is a question on the status of these two heroes a nonsensical question as Tony Snow would put it? How is asking for a straight answer on two border patrol agents who shot an illegal alien drug smuggler and are now going to prison for 11-12 years for doing their job, nonsensical? All we ask from our elected officials and in turn their appointed spokesmen is straight answers, not dancing around the question like a coy school girl out on her first date. These men's families and the rest of the country you serve deserve that much.

These men are tasked with along with stopping illegal aliens, stopping the flow of drugs from that corrupt cesspool called Mexico. They come across Aldrete-Davila carrying over 700 lbs. of Marijuana and give chase. Aldrete-Davila pulls a weapon according to Ramos and Compean. Ramos shoots the illegal alien drug smuggler in the butt as he flees back to Mexico. They were doing their job. They may not have filed all of the paperwork in time but 700 lbs. of dope didn't end up in my neighborhood and for that I'm thankful.

While this is a reason for almost 300,000,000 Americans to celebrate, you somehow have decided that the time was right for the political crucifiction of these men. Why you choose to back Vicente Fox's plan to export both his poor and his associates' drug across the border at the detriment of your country is beyond me. Whatever your reasoning, two families are devastated, the bulk of the remaining Border Patrol agents I'm sure have your message to "just let everything through or you'll be sitting in Federal prison too" and I guess we'll just have to get used to the fact that answers to the illegal alien situation or for that matter the drug war will not be coming from Washington for the next couple of years.

That being said, while i wish him luck, I will let my Republican congressman, Duncan Hunter know that I will not be voting for him in the upcoming November election in protest of your nonsensical policy on the border and will encourage my family, friends and neighbors to do the same. I will also be pushing for my city and county to push for ordinances to combat the errors in illegal immigration that your administration has been so quick to ignore.