BONKERS AT THE BORDER

Most people would consider corrupt border patrol agents to be part of
the illegal immigration problem, not the solution.

So it's passing strange that anti-immigration Republicans in Congress
are calling for the federal government to release Ignacio Ramos and
Jose Alonso Compean, two former border guards from Texas who were sent
to prison last week for shooting an unarmed man in the back and then
trying to cover up their crime. Several GOP lawmakers, including
outspoken restrictionists like Congressmen Tom Tancredo and Duncan
Hunter, have hailed the ex-agents as American heroes. President Bush
is even being urged to pardon Ramos and Compean, who received
sentences of 11 years and 12 years, respectively. GOP Representative
Dana Rohrabacher has gone so far as to accuse Mr. Bush of being "on
the side of [America's] enemies" for allowing the men to go to jail.
CNN's Lou Dobbs has also weighed in repeatedly with pseudo-reporting
designed to rile up his viewers rather than inform them of the facts.
Speaking of facts, they are as follows, according to the U.S.
Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas and evidence
presented at the ex-agents' jury trial: Agents Ramos and Compean were
guarding the Mexican border near El Paso, Texas, on Feb. 17, 2005,
when they encountered a van driven by Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila. When the
driver saw the agents he sped off, eventually abandoning the vehicle
and fleeing toward the border on foot. At one point, Aldrete-Davila
stopped running and raised his empty hands to surrender.

But when the first border agent to approach him stumbled,
Aldrete-Davila took off again toward the Rio Grande.

At this point, Agents Ramos and Compean opened fire, shooting at the
back of a suspect who they knew was unarmed.

They fired 14 rounds in all -- Agent Compean even paused to reload --
finally hitting Aldrete-Davila in the buttocks. The suspect was
wounded but still managed to make it across the border and escape.

It later was determined that Aldrete-Davila was in the country
illegally and smuggling drugs.

Nearly 750 pounds of marijuana were found in the van. But Ramos and
Compean didn't know the suspect's immigration status when they shot
him. Nor did they know the contents of the vehicle he was driving.

What the agents did know is that they had broken any number of border
patrol policies. So Compean and another agent returned to the scene to
gather shell casings and discard them in a drainage ditch.

Compean and Ramos, who'd been disciplined for past conduct unbecoming
a federal officer, then filed a false report.

The only reason their cover-up didn't succeed is because an honest
border agent who learned of the shooting eventually reported it. After
a trial lasting nearly three weeks, a federal jury in El Paso
convicted both agents on charges including assault with a deadly
weapon and obstruction of justice.

As Johnny Sutton, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, put
it: "The simple truth of this case is that former Agents Compean and
Ramos shot 15 times at an unarmed man who was running away from them
and posed no threat.

They lied about what happened, covered up the shooting, conspired to
destroy the evidence and then proceeded to write up and file a false
report."

The Congressmen who are exploiting the episode haven't made an issue
of the agents' guilt, which is by and large conceded.

Rather, the restrictionists argue that Compean and Ramos should be
given a pass because the victim of their crime was a drug-smuggling
illegal alien.

This is an odd argument coming from immigration hard-liners, who
typically say that while they love legal immigrants the U.S. must
"enforce the law" on the border.

That the agents have been held accountable for misconduct shows that
no one is above the law. Letting the agents off the hook would also
send a terrible message to honest border agents who perform a
difficult and dangerous job.

Turning felons into political causes is the kind of stunt usually
pulled by the likes of Al Sharpton. That Republicans would now stoop
to it shows how immigration has caused some on the right to lose their
political bearings. First they gave up their belief in free labor
markets, and now they're discarding their law enforcement
credentials.

And these are the same folks who assail Mr. Bush's guest-worker
proposal as "amnesty." The irony is that if Mr. Bush's plan were in
place and there were more legal ways to enter the U.S., border agents
would have more time and resources to chase down people like
Aldrete-Davila and apprehend them properly.