Bush urged to free two agents

A House Democrat yesterday called on President Bush to commute the sentences of two Border Patrol agents convicted of violating the civil rights of a Mexican drug smuggling suspect.

Rep. Bill Delahunt, Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Foreign Affairs subcommittee on international organizations, human rights and oversight, criticized Bush administration officials for refusing to testify yesterday. He said a second hearing with the House Judiciary Committee will be scheduled to gather the missing testimony.

Mr. Delahunt asked the president to commute the sentences of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos, who is serving 11 years in prison, and Jose Alonso Compean, who is serving 12 years, for shooting the fleeing suspect in the buttocks on the Mexican border in Texas.

“I do hope the president responds swiftly and exercises his constitutional prerogative to commute the sentences of these two men,” said Mr. Delahunt, whose committee was investigating the involvement of the Mexican government in the prosecution of the agents. “Their refusal to testify is just one more example of arrogance on the part of the Department of Justice.”

Charles S. Shapiro, principal deputy assistant secretary of state, told the panel that the State Department had no evidence that the Mexican government was directly involved in the case.

Johnny Sutton, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, and Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner said they could not testify while the case is being appealed.

“This case is still pending appeal filed by the convicted defendants,” the Justice Department said in a letter to the subcommittee. “It is the Department’s long-standing policy not to testify about nonpublic matters pertaining to pending cases.”

Mr. Sutton, however, told the Senate Judiciary Committee two weeks ago that both agents committed “serious crimes” in a case that was about the rule of law.

Mr. Skinner told House members last year that the agents confessed that they were “out to shoot Mexicans” and that they knew the smuggler was unarmed. In sworn testimony earlier this year, Mr. Skinner admitted that his office had given misleading information to Congress and that there was no evidence to support the accusations against the agents.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, the California Republican who called for the hearing, said the absence of two critical government witnesses before the subcommittee has left many questions unanswered.

“The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security have done their best to impede our investigation into Ramos and Compean by not providing documents and now refuse to send the proper witnesses to account for their decisions,” Mr. Rohrabacher said.

Mr. Rohrabacher’s office disclosed last week that Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, the smuggling suspect, was given six border visas to enter the United States unescorted — two of those passes after federal law-enforcement officials connected Mr. Aldrete-Davila to moving nearly $1 million of marijuana into the U.S.