Drug bust controversy

last updated 8 January 2015

El Paso, Texas

The hot-button issue of immigration flared again last week after two Border Patrol agents were imprisoned for trying to conceal the botched arrest of a suspected drug runner. In February 2005, agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos confronted Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, a Mexican national who had just abandoned a marijuana-filled van near El Paso. When Davila tried to escape, Ramos and Compean fired at him, and Ramos hit him with a rifle shot to the buttocks, leaving Davila slightly injured. But instead of arresting Davila, the officers gathered up their shell casings, left the scene, and failed to report the incident. Prosecuted for violating Davila’s rights and concealing evidence, Compean and Ramos were convicted and sentenced to 12 and 11 years, respectively. Texas Republicans have protested the sentences and pressed President Bush to pardon the agents. Bush said he would take “a sober look” at the case.