2 BORDER PATROL AGENTS FACING UP TO 20 YEARS IN PRISON FOR DOING THEIR JOB

Officers Prosecuted - Wounded Drug Trafficker Given Full Immunity In
Exchange For Testimony

When Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos pulled the trigger last
February, all he knew was that his partner was lying on the ground
behind him - bloodied from a struggle with a fleeing suspect - shots
had been fired and now, it appeared, the drug smuggler he was
pursuing had turned toward him with what looked to be a gun in his hand.

In the split-second he had to respond, Ramos determined the course of
his and his partner's lives - federal prison for the next 20 years
for assault with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon,
discharging of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence,
violating civil rights and obstruction of justice.

Ramos, 37, is an eight-year veteran of the U.S. Naval Reserve and a
former nominee for Border Patrol Agent of the Year.

On February 17, he responded to a request for back up from agent Jose
Alonso Compean, 28, who noticed a suspicious van near the levee road
along the Rio Grande River near the Texas town of Fabens, about 40
miles east of El Paso.

Ramos, who headed toward Fabens hoping to cut off the van, soon
joined a third agent already in pursuit.

Behind the wheel of the van was an illegal alien, Osbaldo
Aldrete-Davila of Mexico. Unknown to the growing number of Border
Patrol agents converging on Fabens, Aldrete-Davila's van was carrying
800 pounds of marijuana.

Unable to outrun Ramos and the third agent, Aldrete-Davila stopped
the van on the levee, jumped out and started running toward the
river. When he reached the other side of the levee, he was met by
Compean who had anticipated the smuggler's attempt to get back to Mexico.

"We both yelled out for him to stop, but he wouldn't stop, and he
just kept running," Ramos said. Aldrete-Davila crossed a canal.

"At some point during the time where I'm crossing the canal, I hear
shots being fired," Ramos said. "Later, I see Compean on the ground,
but I keep running after the smuggler."