MEXICO PUSHES JAILING OF AGENTS

EVIDENCE INDICATES MEXICO WANTS U.S. BORDER AGENTS ‘HANDCUFFED’

By Mike Blair

Congressional sources have obtained evidence that the Mexican government is instrumental in getting the U.S. attorney general’s office to prosecute U.S. Border Patrol agents and local law enforcement officers involved in incidents in which illegal aliens have been injured while crossing into the U.S. or while smuggling aliens or illegal drugs.

Documents obtained indicate that Mexican consular officials have demanded that border agents, while enforcing U.S. law along the border, who wounded illegal aliens or smugglers be prosecuted for the violating their civil rights.

Rep. John Culberson (R-Tex.) said he has “long suspected that Mexican government officials ordered the prosecution of our law enforcement agents. . . . Mexico wants to intimidate our law enforcement into leaving our border unprotected and we now have confirmation in writing.”

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), ranking Republican on the House International Relations Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, said:

“It appears we are giving more credence to directions from Mexican government officials than we are to the dictates of our own Constitution and the security of the people of the U.S.”

Rohrabacher, along with several other House members, are requesting that the Judiciary Committee conduct an investigation into Mexican government interference in U.S. immigration enforcement.

The California congressman has led the fight to get presidential pardons for Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who are, combined, serving more than 20 years in prison for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler after catching him sneaking a half-ton of drugs into the United States. Ramos was recently badly beaten by six Hispanic thugs while confined among the general population at the federal correctional center in Yazoo City, Miss.

As it turns out Ramos and Compean are not the only Border Patrol agents who have been prosecuted by the U.S. government for doing their job.

Border Patrol Agent David Sipe is trying to get his job back after his conviction for using excessive force and causing bodily injury of a “transporter” of other illegal aliens across the border was reversed on appeal.

The incident occurred at the U.S. border near Penitas, Tex., on April 5, 2000. Sipe and his partner, Lorraine Gonzales, at 4 a.m. were alerted by a sensor alarm along the border that illegal aliens were trying to sneak into the United States. A second alarm was tripped alerting two other agents, Christopher Cruce and James Smith.

The agents caught up with 12 to 15 illegal aliens near a pump house along a levy, but, when Sipe ordered them to stop, they scattered. Some were captured and put in a Border Patrol van but one, Jose Guevara, removed his white shirt to make him less visible to the agents and hid in some heavy reeds. Sipe caught up with Guevara and the two struggled. Sipe struck Guevara with his flashlight while defending himself, resulting in Guevara being sent to a nearby hospital where he received five stitches for an injury to his head.

Smith told authorities that he had recognized Guevara as someone he had stopped the night before in the same area. On Nov. 14, 2000, Sipe was indicted and eventually found guilty of using excessive force after a six-day trial in federal court for the Southern District of Texas.

Sipe appealed his conviction and, on April 18, 2003, he was granted a new trial based on the fact that the U.S. attorney had withheld evidence.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that, while Sipe was waiting for his appeal, Guevara was again stopped by Border Patrol agents while traveling with other illegal aliens. This time, the court discovered, he was let go after he flashed immunity-from-prosecution credentials he had received from U.S. officials for his testimony against Sipe.

In ordering the new trial the Court of Appeals wrote:

“His arrest with illegal aliens was evidence that he was a transporter, as well as evidence of the extent of the government’s support accorded him in order to obtain his testimony [against Sipe].

“The government stated in writing that the aliens were allowed to remain and work in the United States pending trial and specified that ‘no other promises or advantages’ had been given,” the court found. However, the judge concluded, “That was not true.”

According to the appellate court, shockingly, the prosecution had given Guevara and the two others Social Security cards, witness fees, permits allowing them to travel to and from Mexico and North Carolina without challenge, living expenses and free use of U.S. government telephones.

Sipe maintains that the government turned its back on him while “rolling out the red carpet” for the illegals. And now he wants his job back, although many wonder why. Meanwhile, Guevara is living on his own ranch in Mexico, financed with $80,000 of U.S. taxpayers’ money given to him by the U.S. government.

(American Free Press Issues #10 & 11, March 5 & 12, 2007)