LEGAL DEFENSE FUND STARTED FOR CONVICTED BORDER PATROL AGENTS

EL PASO, Texas -- The union representing U.S. Border Patrol agents has set
up a legal defense fund for two agents convicted earlier this year of
wounding a suspected drug smuggler and then trying to cover up the shooting.

The National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents nearly all
Border Patrol agents, launched the fund this week to help former agents
Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean pay for an appeal and provide some
money for their families. The men were suspended without pay after their
2005 arrests and fired after a federal jury convicted them in March.

Union chief T.J. Bonner, a former agent, said the fund is a way for fellow
agents and other friends of the Border Patrol to show their support for the
agents who Bonner believes were wrongly prosecuted. The union contributed
$10,000 in "seed money."

Compean and Ramos, who were both agents in the Fabens area, were accused of
shooting admitted drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks, and
then trying to cover it up.

Ramos and Compean were convicted in March of assault with a deadly weapon,
obstruction of justice, a civil rights violation and other felonies. They
were both acquitted of assault with attempt to commit murder. They are to
be sentenced later this year and could face more than 20 years in prison.

Bonner said he hopes authorities will also study how the original
investigation was conducted.

Border Patrol officials first learned of the shooting after Davila's mother
contacted the mother-in-law of an Arizona-based Border Patrol agent. The
Border Patrol's Office of the Inspector General later launched an
investigation.

Bonner said he has spoken with several members of Congress, including U.S.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who have said they would look into the case.

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a former Border Patrol sector chief from El
Paso, said he Tuesday has not been contacted and will not take up the case.