Ramos & Compean Released!!!!

This is a follow up to the previous article here http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/ramos-campean-are-going-home.html

Ex-Border Patrol agents convicted in shooting released from prison
By Ramon Bracamontes and Gustavo Reveles Acosta / El Paso Times
Posted: 02/17/2009 09:33:32 AM MST

EL PASO - Former U.S. border patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were released from prison Tuesday, but will remain in a community confinement program until March 20, U.S. Bureau of Prison officials said.
The two agents had been in prison since 2007. President George W. Bush commuted their sentences before he left office.
Traci Billingsley, bureau of prisons spokeswoman, said Tuesday that the two men are out of prison and under the "supervision of the community corrections office for a period of community confinement."
Community confinement means the sentenced person has to spend the last phrase of their sentence either in a halfway house or in home confinement.
Ramos arrived in El Paso on a flight that arrived about 12:45 p.m. Tuesday. He was greeted by family and well-wishers and made no comment to the media. Compean arrived in El Paso on a flight that arrived about 3:50 p.m. Tuesday and also declined to speak to themedia.
Dallas criminal defense lawyer Ed Mason, who represented Compean in his appeal, said Tuesday morning that he had not yet talked to Compean but was awaiting his phone call.
"I think he might be on his way to El Paso," Mason said in a telephone interview. "We haven't been able to talk to him yet."
U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, didn't know that Ramos and Compean had been released until the media told him during a news conference at Aoy Elementary Tuesday morning.
"This is great news for both Ramos and Compean, and obviously for their families. I'm happy for them," he said. "Had I had my druthers they should have been commuted with Scooter Libby. Certainly, if he deserved it, they deserved it."
Billingsley said she could not release where the two agents would spend the last month of their sentence, but it is possible they could spend it at home.
Compean had been in the Elkton Federal Prison in Elkton, Ohio. Ramos was at the Phoenix Federal Prison.
The two former agents were convicted of shooting a drug smuggler and then trying to cover it up. Compean was sentenced to 12 years and Ramos to 11 years in prison. Both agents were found guilty of civil-rights violations and discharging a firearm during the act of a crime, an offense that includes a mandatory 10-year sentence.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_11721824

Down 11% !!

Illegal Immigrants Down 11 PercentMatt PurpleThursday, July 31, 2008When senators tried to pass a “comprehensive immigration bill” last June that would have established a guest worker program for illegal immigrants, many conservatives decried the legislation as amnesty and demanded that the border be secured first.
According to a new study, their outrage may have paid off.
A compilation of data by the Center for Immigration Studies released Wednesday found that since the immigration bill failed to pass the Senate last June, the number of estimated illegal immigrants in the country has declined from about 12.5 million to about 11.2 million, an 11 percent reduction.
This decline began in August 2007, less than two months after the legislation was voted down, and followed a sudden spike in the number of illegal immigrants in the country, which had started in March 2007.
The study measured only Hispanic immigrants ages 18-40 with a high school degree or less of education. Two-thirds of illegal immigrants fit this profile, according to the CIS.
Meanwhile, the population of legal immigrants experienced no decline and has actually grown steadily since June 2007.
“This is the first actual data that demonstrates that something is, in fact, happening here,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director at the CIS.
The study found that the change resulted primarily from illegal immigrants leaving the country to return to Mexico.
Steve Camarada, the director of research at CIS, said that the two most likely factors responsible for this out-migration were increased border enforcement and the lagging economy. But immigrant unemployment rates remained steady until December 2007, long after the exodus of illegal immigrants had begun.
In the past, waves of immigrants leaving the country had always followed spikes in immigrant unemployment, according to Camarada.
Therefore, the recent migration could only be attributed to stepped-up border enforcement, he said.
The CIS compiled its data from the United States Census Bureau, the Pew Foundation, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Rep. Tom Feeny (R-Fla.) credited this trend to the failure of last year’s immigration bill to become law.
“The lesson here is: illegal immigrants aren’t stupid. If you attempt to pass legislation to give them amnesty, they will take advantage of what you’re giving them,” he said.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R- Ala.), a vigorous opponent of legalization for aliens, agreed.
“I think the numbers that are shown here show that the illegal immigrants that come to this country are highly mobile. They can come and they can go,” he said.

Border Patrol Agents

I wanted to let you know what this town has done lately. The link is here http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_10027171 if you want to read further.

Appeals court upholds prison for ex-agents
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 07/29/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT
Forum discussion: Comment on this story EL PASO -- The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld mandatory 10-year prison sentences for former El Paso Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, convicted of civil-rights violations in 2006 after shooting an admitted drug smuggler and then covering it up.
The decision by a three-judge panel renewed calls by some members of Congress for President Bush to commute the sentences of the imprisoned agents. -
"It was a shock to us. It's a complete shock," said Ra mos's wife, Monica Ramos, her voice cracking with emotion hours after the
Imprisoned border agents
Do you agree with the decision to uphold the convictions of border patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean?
Yes
No
decision was announced. After a hearing in December in New Orleans, supporters of the ex-agents had felt that an appeals decision would go their way.
But the court upheld all convictions, except for charges of tampering with an official proceeding because the Border Patrol investigation did not meet statutes.
"Our fight continues. My concern right now is keeping my husband safe where he is at (in prison). He is in segregation and it is tough," Monica Ramos said. She said she was not sure about their next legal move.
Ramos was sentenced to 11 years and Compean 12 years, mainly due to a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence on the federal charge of discharge of a firearm in commission of crime. The law does not exclude law enforcement officers. "The court has validated what this office has said all along -- this prosecution was about the rule of law, plain and simple," U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton said in a statement.
In February 2005, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila was shot in the buttocks as he ran back to Mexico after abandoning a van filled with marijuana near Fabens. Prosecutors said Aldrete Davila was unarmed. The agents claimed the shooting was in self-defense and it was a mistake to not report it to supervisors.
"The jury was the fact-finder. The jury heard all the evidence. The jury returned the verdict. The jury did not believe the Border Patrol agents. It convicted them," the 45-page appeals court opinion stated.
Aldrete Davila is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 6 after pleading guilty to smuggling more than 100 kilos of marijuan a in the fall of 2005.
Aldrete faces a minimum mandatory sentence of five years and up to 40 years in prison.