Rep. Duncan Hunter has asked President Donald Trump to pardon two former border patrol agents who were convicted in the shooting an unarmed marijuana smuggler as he tried to run from Texas and into Mexico, a case that fanned an international debate about security at the border.

“In the course of a struggle, and in what appeared to be the suspect brandishing a weapon, these agents fired their guns and hit him in the backside as he escaped back into Mexico,” Hunter, R-Alpine said in a statement.

“Rather than reward these agents for their $1 million seizure, a U.S. Attorney offered the drug smuggler immunity in exchange for testimony to prosecute and convict them.”

The agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, were convicted in 2006 of assault with a dangerous weapon, tampering with an official proceeding, and other crimes related to the shooting. A federal judge sentenced Ramos to 11 years in prison, and Compean to 12 years.


But on his last full day in office in January 2009, then-President George W. Bush commuted their sentences, effectively granting them release from prison, but leaving the former agents with criminal records.

An investigation by the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General said the smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, was intercepted in February 2005 by Border Patrol near El Paso as he tried to ferry nearly 750 pounds of marijuana stowed in a van to a stash house.

After seeing the agents Aldrete-Davila tried to cross back into Mexico, first in the van, and then, after a brief fight with Compean, on foot. Both men fired at Aldrete-Davila, a Mexican national, as he ran toward the Rio Grande. He was hit in the buttocks with a round from Ramos’ gun, the report said.

Compean would later pick up some of the bullet casings from the ground and ask a colleague to retrieve the others, and admitted to throwing evidence of the shooting away. Neither Ramos nor Compean or other border patrol agents reported the shooting.


In written statement during the investigaton, Compean said he didn’t report the matter because he was scared of the possible consequences.

“I did not report the shooting because I didn’t think anything had happened to the guy. I was afraid I was going to get in trouble,” he wrote, according to DHS documents. But he later wrote that he saw Aldrete-Davila limping, and believed that Ramos might have shot him. He also said he believed that Aldrete-Davila might have been armed with a gun, but “never really saw for certain.”

Hunter said that despite the commuted sentences, Ramos and Compean have difficulty finding work.

“...I believe that they deserve every consideration for a pardon due to the circumstances of the incident and I respectfully request that you instruct the Office of the Pardon Attorney to provide their cases full and fast attention.” Hunter wrote in a Sept. 22 letter to Trump.


Hunter said that Aldrete-Davila received immunity from prosecution on smuggling charges in exchange for his testimony against the two officers, and that, sometime later, he was arrested on smuggling charges and sentenced to nine years in prison.


Twitter: @jptstewart

joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

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