CONVICTED EX-BORDER AGENT MAY NOT GET HEARING

With only about two weeks of work left in the U.S. Congress session,
the hope for a promised congressional hearing into the case of two
convicted El Paso Border Patrol agents is fading fast.

"We'll be done in Congress the week of the 11th. We're running out of
time," said Alan Knapp, the deputy chief of staff and legislative
director for U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas.

Poe expected to deliver by today a letter to U.S. Rep. James
Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, asking
for the hearing to be promptly scheduled, Knapp said.

Sensenbrenner had given his blessing for a congressional investigation
into the prosecution of agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean
during a public hearing on immigration in El Paso in August. This
week, his office directed questions to a spokesman who did not return
phone calls.

Because of the legislative reshuffling after the Democrats' success in
the Nov. 7 elections, it is unlikely that Republican supporters of the
agents will have positions of power come January.

situation is sorely disappointing to family members who had put a lot
of hope in the promised hearing, especially after Ramos was sentenced
in October to 11 years in prison and Compean to 12 years in prison for
violation of civil rights and tampering with evidence.

The families were first told that the hearing would take place before
the November elections. Then they were told they would have to wait
until shortly after the elections. These days, they said, their phone
calls and e-mails go unanswered.

"They promised and promised. So many of them were all for the
congressional investigation," said Joe Loya, Ramos' father-in-law. "We
are very disappointed."

Supporters on far-reaching online networks that publicized the case
nationwide felt that a congressional hearing would expose
prosecutorial zealotry and other mismanagement. But it isn't clear
what benefits Compean and Ramos, who were convicted and sentenced by a
jury, could have gained from it.

Ramos and Compean are free on bond until Jan 17, when they are
supposed to surrender to start their prison sentences. However, they
have filed appeals and asked a judge to allow them to remain free
pending the appeal.

Ramos and Compean shot at Osvaldo Aldrete Davila during a chase Feb.
17, 2005, near Fabens as he was running toward Mexico after abandoning
a van filled with marijuana. One bullet hit Aldrete in the buttocks.
The agents said they thought Aldrete had a gun. Aldrete testified that
he did not. The agents did not report the shooting to their superiors,
and Compean picked up shell casings, court testimony showed.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes,
D-Texas, have declined to support a congressional hearing, saying they
would not interfere with the jury's decision and saw no evidence of
prosecutorial abuse.

The hearing was originally announced in El Paso by U.S. Rep. John
Hostettler, R-Ind. Hostettler, who lost his re-election bid, has
drafted the charter for the hearing. But the charter has to be
approved by Sensenbrenner for the hearing to take place, officials
said.

Congressman Poe's staffers said they expected to get their letter to
Sensenbrenner signed by other legislators, including U.S. Rep. Tom
Tancredo, R-Colo., and U.S. Reps. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C. Officials in
Jones' office said this week that they didn't know whether their
congressman would participate in a letter to Sensenbrenner.