January 15, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H375 

But I just submit, Madam Speaker, if 

this continues, and I keep being shut 

out on getting this idea from the people for the people by the people, and 

the votes keep being that we can’t 

bring a bill like that to the floor for a 

vote, it may be, come November of 2010 

that the voters will say, we want to 

elect somebody that will do what needs 

doing and not helping their cronies. 

Oh, yes, we heard, well, the leadership over here in the House has the 

idea for this great TARP money. We’re 

going to use it for infrastructure. Oh, 

yeah. Well, apparently the bill being 

proposed only has 5 or 6 percent for infrastructure. 

You let people have their own money, 

you let them spend it where they need 

spending, the money will be in the 

economy, the economy will increase, 

and everybody will be better off and 

the people will have heard from us as 

they wanted. 

f 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a 

previous order of the House, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. KUCINICH) is recognized for 5 minutes. 

(Mr. KUCINICH addressed the House. 

His remarks will appear hereafter in 

the Extensions of Remarks.) 

f 

VACATING 5-MINUTE SPECIAL 

ORDER 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without 

objection, the previous 5-minute Special Order in favor of Mr. POE of Texas 

is vacated. 

There was no objection. 

f 

FURTHER MESSAGE FROM THE 

PRESIDENT 

A further message in writing from 

the President of the United States was 

communicated to the House by Ms. 

Wanda Evans, one of his secretaries. 

f 

LAST STAND FOR RAMOS AND 

COMPEAN 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under 

the Speaker’s announced policy of January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Texas 

(Mr. POE) is recognized for 60 minutes 

as the designee of the minority leader. 

Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, 

in the dusty, arid plains of West Texas, 

where the tumbleweeds blow across the 

prairies, there’s a small town called 

Fabens. Fabens, Texas, a population of 

about 8,000, mostly lower-income individuals, but they’re doing what they 

can to eke out an income out of the 

land that they work. 

On February 17, 2005, almost 4 years 

ago, these events took place. A drug 

dealer by the name of Aldrete Davila 

came across from Mexico, which is six 

miles from Fabens, Texas, right here 

on the map. He’s driving a van. He has 

about $750,000 worth of narcotics in 

that van. And of course, he’s smuggling 

drugs into America; something that occurs along the entire Texas/Mexico border. 

He’s confronted by one of our first responders, Border Security Agent Jose 

Compean. Border Agent Jose Compean 

does his job, and he gives chase to this 

drug smuggler in the van. Aldrete, the 

smuggler, turns his van around, tries 

to head back to Mexico with his cancer 

that he’s going to try to sell in the 

United States. He abandons his vehicle. 

He gets down in the river bed between 

Mexico and Texas in the Rio Grande 

Valley, and he has a fight with Jose 

Compean. 

Another border agent by the name of 

Ignacio Ramos shows up and meets the 

call for help to stop this drug trafficker 

into the United States. Meanwhile, a 

fight ensues between the drug dealer 

and Border Agent Compean, and 

Compean is left in the river bed, bleeding, while the drug dealer runs back to 

Mexico. 

Ignacio Ramos, border agent, sees 

what’s taking place. He sees the drug 

dealer, in his opinion, with a weapon, 

keeps turning back like this, and he 

fires his weapon. 

b 1515 

And the drug dealer disappears. 

Unbeknownst to all of us, there was 

another vehicle on the other side of the 

border, waiting to pick him up and 

take him back to wherever he came 

from. 

Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos, 

border agents, at the time they pick up 

the shells that are fired, they don’t immediately report the events, and nothing occurs until the following takes 

place: 

The drug dealer goes back to Mexico. 

It turns out that he was wounded. He 

was shot in the buttocks. Without 

being too graphic, the bullet went in 

one cheek and came out the other 

cheek as if he were pointing his weapon 

when he got shot. 

But be that as it may, in some way, 

the U.S. Government gets involved. It 

goes to Mexico. It finds the drug dealer 

and says, ‘‘Looky here. Have we got a 

deal for you. All you’ve got to do is 

come back to America and testify 

against those two border agents for a 

civil rights violation,’’ or whatever we 

charged them with, ‘‘and we will treat 

you for your wounds, and we will give 

you a pass to go back and forth across 

the border, and we will not prosecute 

you for bringing drugs into the United 

States.’’ 

So, months later, that immunity deal 

is struck, and the border trespasser— 

smuggler—gets a deal, a backroom 

deal, a deal to testify. In my experience 

as a former judge and prosecutor, unfortunately, when you make a deal 

with a criminal, you usually get the 

testimony you want. 

What happened was they were waiting to bring these two border agents to 

trial on numerous charges, but remember, all they did was fail to report the 

fact that they fired their weapons. Normally, under Border Patrol policy, that 

is an administrative punishment. You 

get days off—5 days from what I understand. They could have been fired for 

that, but they were not. They were 

prosecuted in Federal court for numerous violations, mainly for shooting the 

drug smuggler. Of course, they both 

never knew they shot the drug smuggler until they were told by our government. 

In any event, unbeknownst to us, the 

trial gets postponed. We don’t know 

why the trial is postponed. It’s not 

tried right away, but it gets postponed. 

The reason it got postponed, which we 

all learned much, much later, was that, 

while the drug smuggler was out on his 

get-out-of-jail-free card, thanks to our 

government, he was still smuggling 

drugs into the United States. 

In October of 2005, lo and behold, 

Aldrete brings another load of narcotics into the United States. At first, 

our government denied that they knew 

anything about that, but I ended up receiving a copy of the DEA report, 

which showed specifically that Aldrete 

was bringing in drugs while he was out 

on this get-out-of-jail-free card. 

So the trial takes place after it is 

postponed. In March of 2006, these two 

border agents are tried. They are convicted. The jury never knows that the 

star witness—the government’s 

bought-and-paid-for witness—brought 

in another load of drugs. The U.S. Attorney’s Office convinced that judge 

from keeping that testimony from the 

jury. 

Now, the main witness the government had against the two Border Patrol Agents was this witness, the drug 

smuggler who was given a deal to testify. 

Now I ask you, Madam Speaker: If 

you were on a jury and you had to decide if a person was telling the truth, 

wouldn’t you want to know that, while 

they were waiting to testify after they 

were given immunity, they were still 

bringing drugs into the United States? 

Wouldn’t you want to know that to 

judge whether or not this witness is 

telling you the truth or not? 

I think, probably, you would want to 

know that, and I think that’s probably 

the reason the government kept that 

testimony from the jury, because they 

didn’t want the jury to know the truth 

about their witness. 

In any event, the witness testifies. 

The border agents are convicted; they 

are found guilty, and are sent to the 

Federal penitentiary for 11 and 12 

years. Under Federal law, they will 

serve most of that time. 

This case sort of disappeared from 

the radar until people started talking. 

The news media even brought this case 

up. A reporter by the name of Sara 

Carter has been following this case 

since the trial. Thanks to her and to 

other people in our national media, 

this is still being discussed by not only 

Members of Congress but by the public 

throughout the country. 

Since I, really, have almost no life, I 

read the 3,000-page transcript of the 

trial, so I know what the jury heard. I 

read it. In September of 2006, long after 


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