Snow: White House awaiting Congress' hearing on pardons

Snow: White House awaiting Congress' hearing on pardons
Delegation from U.S. House asked for intervention for Border Patrol officers

A spokesman for the White House says the president will await the results of a congressional hearing before deciding whether he will review using his power to pardon on behalf of two U.S. Border Patrol agents.

The two, Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos, got 12 years and 11 years, respectively, from U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, Texas, last week for shooting and wounding a man smuggling drugs into the U.S.

A day after WND had asked Snow whether a pardon might be reviewed, a dozen Republican members of Congress from nine different states wrote the president asking for an investigation into that sentencing.

"Since there will be a congressional hearing on this case on November the 13th, will the White House refuse to respond to these 12 Republican congressmen," WND yesterday asked White House spokesman Tony Snow, through its White House correspondent, Les Kinsolving.

"I don't have an answer for that, Lester. As you recall the other day when I tried to give you an answer about why we don't answer those questions, it was used provocatively by your editors. So let's just say, let's wait and see what the hearing produces. I believe you have 12 people who want to have a hearing, and we'll be interested in seeing what those hearings provide," Snow told WND.

The reference to an answer being used "provocatively" developed when Kinsolving had asked Snow during a White House press briefing Monday whether Bush would consider using his power of pardon to free the agents.

"That's an unanswerable question, Les. The president is the person who is responsible for pardons. You can tell the network, which made you ask that question, that it is nonsensical," Snow said.

Snow later apologized for any misunderstanding he caused by characterizing as "nonsensical" the question.

"I wasn't trying to embarrass anyone," Snow told Joseph Farah, editor of WND. "It's just that I am not permitted even to discuss pardons – to comment on them. This is the president's call alone."

Snow indicated he has been getting a lot of heat from radio talk-show hosts and angry Americans over his comment.

"I was not judging the merits of a pardon for these agents," he said. "I was just trying to make the point that I cannot comment on matters concerning pardons."

As WND has reported, a federal jury convicted Compean, 28, and Ramos, 37, in March after a two-week trial on charges of causing serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and a civil rights violation.

Ramos is an eight-year veteran of the U.S. Naval Reserve and a former nominee for Border Patrol Agent of the Year.

On Feb. 17, 2005, Ramos responded to a request for back up from Compean, who noticed a suspicious van near the levee road along the Rio Grande River near the Texas town of Fabens, about 40 miles east of El Paso. A third agent also joined the pursuit.

Fleeing was an illegal alien, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila of Mexico. Unknown to the growing number of Border Patrol agents converging on Fabens, Aldrete-Davila's van was carrying 800 pounds of marijuana.

Aldrete-Davila stopped the van on a levee, jumped out and started running toward the river. When he reached the other side of the levee, he was met by Compean who had anticipated the smuggler's attempt to get back to Mexico.

"We both yelled out for him to stop, but he wouldn't stop, and he just kept running," Ramos told California's Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.

"At some point during the time where I'm crossing the canal, I hear shots being fired," Ramos said. "Later, I see Compean on the ground, but I keep running after the smuggler."

At that point, Ramos said, Aldrete-Davila turned toward him, pointing what looked like a gun.

"I shot," Ramos said. "But I didn't think he was hit, because he kept running into the brush and then disappeared into it. Later, we all watched as he jumped into a van waiting for him. He seemed fine. It didn't look like he had been hit at all."

In a move that still confuses Ramos and Compean, the U.S. government filed charges against them after giving full immunity to Aldrete-Davila and paying for his medical treatment at an El Paso hospital.

"This is the greatest miscarriage of justice I have ever seen," said Andy Ramirez of the nonprofit group Friends of the Border Patrol. "This drug smuggler has fully contributed to the destruction of two brave agents and their families and has sent a very loud message to the other Border Patrol agents: If you confront a smuggler, this is what will happen to you."

The letter to Bush was signed by Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla., Rep. Gary Miller, R-Calif., Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va. and Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., the chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus.

"We ask that a full investigation of this case be ordered immediately," they went on to say in the letter sent to the White House. "We are confident that during such an investigation you will find that these Border Patrol agents were acting within the scope of their duty and were unjustly prosecuted. Also, we ask that you use your power of presidential pardon, as granted by the United States Constitution in Article II, Section 2, to pardon these two Border Patrol agents. We understand these requests usually are for those that have already completed their sentences; however, we feel in this case it would be a miscarriage of justice to send these two Border Patrol agents to prison for protecting our nation's borders from an illegal drug smuggler."

"This is not the message that our legal system should be giving to the drug cartels that are smuggling drugs, people and terrorists across our borders," said Tancredo, author of "In Mortal Danger," a book that says the insecure border and immigration enforcement policies represent the No. 1 crisis in the U.S. today.

Meanwhile, the Federation for American Immigration Reform has launched a petition drive to get Bush to reopen the case.