VICTORY FOR THE BORDER TWO!!!

Carlos Espinosa 202-225-7882; T.Q. Houlton 202-225-7882

Tancredo Amendment to Free Ramos & Compean Passes House

(WASHINGTON, DC) – US Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) today celebrated a key victory for law enforcement and against criminal border crossers as his bill to prevent the Bush Administration from using any funds to enforce the judgment or sentences imposed by a federal judge in the case of U.S. vs. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean passed by voice vote last night in the House of Representatives.  The amendment will force the release of the two former Border Patrol agents whose case has been the focus of national news for several months.

“Last night we sent a clear message to the Administration to put the pressure back on criminals who smuggle drugs across our border rather than the people who protect us from them,” said Tancredo, whose amendment was attached last night to a bill funding the operation of the Departments of Justice and Commerce.

Tancredo pointed out that Article I of the U.S. Constitution provides Congress with absolute authority over all spending matters.  By blocking the use of any funds to enforce the guilty verdict, or to impose the egregious sentence handed down in the Ramos case, Tancredo's amendment would have the effect of freeing the two agents from federal custody.

Tancredo also noted that while the approach is unconventional, it is not unprecedented.  He cited a previous example in 2005 in which the House approved an amendment that prevented the administration from using any funding to enforce a court decision barring the display of the Ten Commandments in a public building.

After the House approves the funding measure today, the amendment will move to the Senate for further consideration.

Tancredo blasts Conferees for keeping Border Agents imprisoned for the Christmas season

( WASHINGTON, D.C. ) – Representative Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton) today blasted Democrats after a Congressional panel stripped language from the Omnibus Appropriations bill that sought to reverse the unjust conviction of two border patrol agents and release them from federal custody. 

Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were wrongfully imprisoned in 2006 for shooting a drug smuggler in the buttocks as he fled a truck filled with over 700 pounds of marijuana. They are serving 11 and 12 years, respectively. Tancredo’s language would have prevented the expenditure of any federal funds to carry out the sentences imposed on the two men, effectively freeing them from federal custody.

“The House of Representatives passed this amendment overwhelmingly – but unfortunately the open borders crowd and their Democrat friends on Capitol Hill decided to play the Grinch this Christmas and stripped it from this bill,” Tancredo said.

The amendment passed without objection on July 25, 2007 and was included in a spending bill funding annual operations for the Department of Justice.

“Because of the actions of the Democrat leadership in Congress, two of America’s finest will remain locked up in federal prison over the holidays while Members of Congress are home with their families carving their Christmas turkeys,” said Tancredo. “It is disgraceful that Nancy Pelosi has chosen to put the interests of an illegal alien drug smuggler and the open-borders lobby before the interests of these two men.”

The Democrats decision to strip the language comes just weeks after members of a federal appellate panel expressed a willingness to review the disproportionate sentences handed down to the two agents amid questionable circumstances in March of 2006.

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(http://tancredo.house.gov/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=1329)