Eagle Forum Urges President Bush to Pardon Border Guards

The Eagle Forum, a pro-family group founded in 1972 by Phyllis Schlafly, a national leader of the conservative movement and author of 20 books on subjects ranging from family to feminism, is urging President George W. Bush to pardon US Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.

Ramos and Compean are in prison right now, serving 11- and 12-year long prison sentences for what many cite as simply doing their jobs as U.S. Border Guards.

Ramos' and Compean's odyssey with the law began on a workday on February 17, 2005, near El Paso, Texas. Ramos and Compean were guarding the Mexican border during the regular course of their job and intercepted a van that contained almost 750 pounds of marijuana being smuggled over the border for sale to U.S. citizens. Ramos and Compean tried to stop the drug smuggler, who was engaged in the illegal activity of smuggling drugs over the border from Mexico to the U.S.

In their attempt to stop the illegal drug smuggler, Ramos and Compean fired their guns. The guards were convicted for allegedly shooting one bullet into the buttocks of the drug-smuggler. The two U.S. Border Guards were also charged with failing to report the discharge of their firearms.

In the statement issued by the Eagle Forum today, the pro-family group calls the prosecution of the two U.S. Border Guards a miscarriage of justice not an activity deserving of the jail sentences handed down to the two men who were doing their jobs, protecting the border. "So much has come out since the Ramos and Compean trial which proves that the decision to criminally prosecute them was a gross miscarriage of justice," Eagle Forum President and Founder, Phyllis Schlafly says. "Their alleged violation, if true, deserved only an administrative reprimand!"

The Eagle Forum is even questioning the fairness of the trial, citing that the men were kept in solitary confinement while their appeals were underway, a fact of which many may be unaware. The Eagle Forum statement is very clear on this point. "Ramos and Compean did not get a fair trial. Not only have they been wrongly convicted, but they are being kept in solitary confinement instead of being allowed to go home while their appeals unfold. This is malicious and unworthy of the Bush Administration."

George W. Bush's commuting of the sentence of Washington insider Scooter Libby because it was excessive for the crime committed is cited by the Eagle Forum as being incongruent with the U.S. government's putting two U.S. Border Guards in jail for over a decade because they did their jobs. The Eagle Forum also questions the seriousness of the Bush administration's commitment to securing the border given this situation.

"The bottom line is that two of our border guards are in jail and a drug smuggler is running free! The White House is sending the message that it is not serious about border security, especially when border guards are being jailed and illegal drug-smugglers are not."

"President Bush cited the injustice of an excessive sentence when he commuted the sentence of Washington insider Scooter Libby. He should have no problem in extending the same courtesy to our brave border guards."

Eagle Forum Urges President Bush to Pardon Border Guards, PR NewsWire, July 17, 2007, http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=ind_focus.story&STORY=/www/story/07-17-2007/0004626803&EDATE=TUE+Jul+17+2007,+08:00+AM