Coddling Illegals, Jailing Agents
Justice: Another border patrol agent faces prison after arresting an illegal alien smuggling drugs. When not being killed by guns funneled into Mexico by their own government, they are prosecuted for doing their job.
In a case reminiscent of an earlier injustice against those protecting our borders, Border Patrol Agent
Jesus E. "Chito" Diaz Jr. has been sentenced to two years in prison by U.S. District Judge Alia Moses Ludlum in San Antonio. The illegal alien he arrested for drug smuggling goes free.
In November 2009, Diaz was named in a federal grand jury indictment after an October 2008 arrest near the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas.
He allegedly used excessive force in lifting the arms of a 15-year-old drug smuggler who was resisting arrest to force him to the ground, then put his knee in the suspect's back and yanked on the handcuffs.
If you believe the complaint filed by the Mexican Consulate in Eagle Pass within hours of the arrest, the teen smuggler was hit repeatedly for refusing to give the names of those for whom he was running drugs. Yet at trial, according to Andy Ramirez, president of the Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council, the smuggler did not claim any injuries attributed to the arrest.
The smuggler, who was given immunity from prosecution, complained of a soreness in his shoulders that was probably due to the 75 pounds of illegal drugs he'd carried across the border in his backpack.
The court sealed the photos of the smuggler's body. But according to Ramirez, "The only marks on his body came from the straps of the pack he carried containing the drugs."
Ramirez said that "witnesses made claims that were contradictory amongst each other, and some later admitted in court to having perjured themselves."
In the 2 a.m. darkness, it was hard to see anything, he noted. Marco Ramos, the agent who stood next to Diaz, testified that he didn't see anything that was claimed to have taken place.
The charges against Diaz, 31, a seven-year veteran of the Border Patrol, initially were investigated by Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Office of Professional Responsibility, which cleared the agent of any wrongdoing.
Nearly a year after the incident, however, the Internal Affairs Division at U.S. Customs and Border Protection thought differently. Under pressure from the Mexican government, charges were brought against Diaz by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas.
If that rings a bell, it should. Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were sentenced to 11- and 12-year prison terms after the same office in February 2006, under U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, prosecuted them for shooting a drug-smuggling suspect, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, in the buttocks as he tried to flee back into Mexico after abandoning a van filled with 800 pounds of marijuana.
Ramos and Compean were railroaded and persecuted by Sutton, who took the word of a drug smuggler over theirs, offered him immunity to testify against them and concealed a second drug-smuggling offense from the jury.
President Bush commuted their sentences after they served two years.
The Diaz case appeal will be heard before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, La., the same court as the Ramos/Compean cases.
These prosecutions and the deaths of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata with weapons funneled into Mexico under the Fast and Furious operation run by the U.S. government must weigh heavily on the minds of other agents and law enforcement personnel charged with the daunting task of enforcing our laws and securing our borders.
They must wonder whose side their government is on.